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UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



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THE 



HORSE AND HIS DISEASES. 



THE 



HORSE AND HIS DISEASES: 



EMBRACING 



HIS HISTORY AND VARIETIES, BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT 

AND VICES; WITH THE DISEASES TO WHICH HE 

IS SUBJECT, AND THE REMEDIES BEST 

ADAPTED TO THEIR CURE. 



By ROBERT JENNINGS, V.S., 

PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGY AND OPERATIVE SURGERY IN THE VETERINARY COLLEGE OF 
PHILADELPHIA ; PROFESSOR OF VETERINARY MEDICINE IN THE LATE AGRI- 
CULTURAL COLLEGE OF OHIO ; SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN 
VETERINARY ASSOCIATION OF PHILADELPHIA, ETC., ETC. 



TO WHICH ARE ADDED, RARET'S METHOD OP TAMING HORSES, AND THE 

LAW OF WARRANTY AS APPLICABLE TO THE PURCHASE 

AND SALE OF THE ANIMAL. 



lUttsiratefc ibg ncarlg §m fltm^b ^ngrafrins*. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN E. POTTER, 

NO. 617 SANSOM STREET. 
1860. 



: 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year, 1SG0, by 

JOHN E. POTTEK, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



Philadelphia: 

electrotyped by s. a. george, 

607 sansom street. 









PREFACE. 



This volume is offered to the consideration of the public, not 
without a knowledge on the part of the author that many excel- 
lent works upon the horse have already appeared. It has occurred 
to him, however, that each of these various works is devoted rather 
to the consideration of some particular topic of interest in connec- 
tion with this generous animal, than to a general treatment of the 
various subjects which appropriately claim notice in a work in- 
tended for the ordinary reader. 

There are comparatively few in our country who are not, at some 
period or other, brought into contact with the horse, either as 
owners, hirers, or in some other capacity. The great majority 
cannot avail themselves of the numerous treatises already extant, 
which touch upon this animal, without gathering about themselves 
a library so large as seriously to trench upon their pecuniary com- 
fort. Besides, so far as the ailments of the horse are concerned, 
much progress has been made in their treatment within the last 
few years. Old theories have been exploded, and, as the author 
believes, an era of a more humane and judicious medical treatment 
is dawning upon us. A marked improvement is discernible in the 
class of practitioners who essay the veterinary art ; a greater amount 
of intelligence characterizes their action, and, as a consequence, 
the occupation of the veterinary surgeon is fast rising in popular 
estimation. 

To these cheering indications of a better day for the horse and 
his owner, the author claims not to be indifferent. If an experi- 
ence of fifteen years, diligently devoted to an investigation of the 

(5) 



6 PREFACE. 

habits, peculiarities, wants, and weaknesses of the horse, has not 
been utterly fruitless in results, he flatters himself that he can at 
least contribute his mite in furtherance of a better understanding 
of an animal, which can never be too well understood by any one 
who would gain the greatest possible advantage from such a ser- 
vant. 

With such views the author has prepared the present work. Its 
pages are believed to contain a complete, candid, and truthful ex- 
position of all the points which it is incumbent upon the horse- 
owner to comprehend. Standard authorities upon the subject have 
been freely consulted, and the suggestions therein contained have 
been adopted, when corroborated by the author's own experience 
or observation. Reference has been made to the following among 
others : — Percival, Blain, Morton, Clark, Finley Dunn, Youatt, 
Coleman, and Spooner, on the Horse ; Herbert's Horse of America, 
and Hints to Horsekeepers ; Stewart's Stable Economy; The Far- 
mer's Encyclopedia ; and the Morgan Horse by Linsley. 

The remedies recommended have all stood the test of actual trial, 
and are known to have proved efficacious in previous cases. As the 
author has no special hobby to ride, he has in this department of 
the subject given such modes of treatment only as he personally 
has superintended in actual practice, no matter from what source 
they may have been suggested. The very many illustrations 
throughout the volume it is believed will materially enhance its 
interest and value. 

With the hope that the work may meet the approval of the large 
class for whom it was specially prepared, and with the consciousness 
that no effort to that end has been omitted by the author, he. con- 
fidently leaves it in their hands, to be dealt with as to them shall 
seem most meet and proper. 

Philadelphia, September, 1860. 



CONTENTS. 



*♦* 

PAGE 

HISTORY OF THE HORSE, 17 

Hokses of Asia and Africa, 24 

The Arabian, 24 

The Persian 25 

The Tartarian, 25 

The Turkoman, 25 

The Turkish Horse, 25 

Horses of Hindostan, 26 

The Barb and others, 26 

European Horses, 27 

The Racer, 27 

The Hunter, _27 

The Hackney, 27 

The Cart Horse, 28 

German, French, and Spanish Horses, , 29 

The American Horse, 30 

The American Blood Horse, 39 

The Vermont Draught Horse, 57 

The Conestoga Horse, 60 

The Canadian Horse, 62 

The Indian Pony 64 

The Narragansett Pacer, 65 

The Morgan Horse, 69 

Natural Hisxort of the Horse, 73 

BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT, ...T^7....»T.^^; 102 

Breeding, 102 

Breaking, , 110 

Castration, 118 

Docking, 120 

O) 



8 CONTENTS. 

BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT— Continued. page 

Nicking, 121 

The Stable, 125 

Are, 127. 

Litter, 130 

Light, 131 

Grooming, 133 

Exercise, 135 

Food 138 

Water, 153 

Pasturing, 156 

Service, 168 

Shoeing, 175 

Administering Medicine, 193 

tices op the horse ~;~;.v^~;:~;:..;..;„;....; .;:. ; 198 

Restiveness, 199 

Baulking or Jibbing, 199 

Biting, 203 

Kicking, 204 

Rearing, 206 

Running Away, 207 

Vicious to Clean, 207 

Vicious to Shoe, 208 

Crib-biting, 210 

Wind-sucking, 212 

Overreaching, 212 

Not Lying Down, 213 

Shying, 214 

Pawing, » 216 

Rolling, 217 

Slipping the Collar or Halter, 217 

Stumbling, 218 

Unsteadiness while being Mounted, , 219 

DISEASES, AND THEIR REMEDIES, :T.~~~~~™~......;.7.. 220 

1 the Mouth, 221 

Lampas, M ,.. 221 

Inflamed Gums, , „ 222 

Bags or Washes, 222 

Ulcers in the Mouth, ; 222 

Sore Mouth, ,..,. 223 

Cut Tongue,.. ...,.,.. .;....., 224 



CONTENTS. § 

DISEASES, AND THEIR REMEDIES— Continued. page 

Uneven Teeth, ..7.7777777777777. 224 

Quidding, 225 

Wolf Teeth 226 

Caries of the Teeth, 227 

Extracting Teeth, 230 

Diseases of the Respiratory Organs, 231 

Inflammation, 231 

Sore Throat, 232 

Strangles, 234 

Chronic Cough, 235 

Catarrh, 23S 

Distemper, 237 

Influenza, : 237 

Bronchitis 240 

Nasal Gleet, 241 

Pneumonia, 243 

Pleurisy, 245 

Hydrothorax, 247 

Thick Wind, 24S 

Roaring and Whistling, 249 

Broken Wind, 249 

Diseases of the Stomach and Intestines, 251 

Inflammation of the Stomach, 251 

Inflammation of the Bowels, 252 

Diarrhoea, 255 

Inordinate Appetite, 256 

Palsy of the Stomach, 257 

Rupture of the Stomach, 258 

Calculus, or Stony Concretions, 259 

Hair Ball, 260 

Strangulation of the Intestines, 260 

Spasmodic Colic, 261 

Flatulent Colic, 262 

Worms 263 

Bots, 265 

Diseases of the Liver, 268 

Inflammation of the Liver 269 

Jaundice, 270 

Hepatirrhcea, 271 

Decayed Structure of the Liver, 272 

Diseases of the Urinary Organs, 273 

Inflammation of the Bladder, 273 



10 CONTENTS. 

DISEASES, AND THEIR REMEDIES— Continued. PAGE 

Retention of Urine, 274 

Profuse Staling, 275 

Bloody Urine, 276 

Stones in the Kidneys, 277 

Stones in the Bladder, 278 

Diseases of the Feet and Legs, 279 

Contraction of the Hoof, 279 

Corns, 280 

Quitter, 282 

Thrush, 282 

Canker 283 

Scratches, 284 

Grease Heels, 284 

! Water Farcy, 286 

Weed, 287 

Cracked Hoof, 287 

Sole Bruise and Gravel, 28S 

Pricking, 288 

False Quarter, 289 

Founder, 290 

Pumiced Foot, 291 

Corinitis, 291 

Navicularthritis, , 292 

Ossification of the Lateral Cartilages, 293 

Wind Galls, 294 

Sprung or Broken Knees, , 294 

Breaking Down, 295 

Strains of the Knees, 295 

Strain of the Hip Joint, 296 

Shoulder Strain, 296 

Open Joints, 297 

Sweenie, 297 

Ostitis, 298 

Capulet and Capped Hock, 299 

Caries of the Bones, c 299 

Bone Spavin, 300 

Ring Bone, 303 

Splint, 303 

Curb,.; 304 

String Halt, 305 

Blood Spavin, Bog Spavin, and Thoroughpin, 305 

Fractures, 306 



CONTENTS. 11 

DISEASES AND THEIR REMEDIES— Continued. page 

Diseases of the Heart, 307 

Pericarditis, 308 

Carditis, 310 

Endrocarditis, 310 

Diseases op the Head, 311 

Osteo-Sarcoma, 311 

Inflammation of the Brain, 312 

Megrims, 313 

Vertigo, 314 

Epilepsy, 314 

Stomach Staggers, .',.^., v . 315 

Diseases of the Eye 317 

Amaurosis, 317 

Inflammation of the Membrana Nictitans, .1. 318 

Simple Ophthalmia, 319 

Specific Ophthalmia, 320 

Cataract, , 321 

Wall Eye, 322 

Miscellaneous Diseases, 322 

Poll Evil, 322 

Fistula of the Withers, 324 

Melanotic Tumors, 324 

Glanders, 325 

Farcy, xyp- 327 

Scarlet Fever, ...?£. 328 

Mange, 329 

Surfeit, 331 

Hide Bound, 332 

Strains of the Loins, 332 

Palsy, 333 

Locked Jaw, -.. 333 

Rheumatism, 335 

Cramp, 336 

Hydrocele, 336 

Warts, 337 

Sit-Fasts, 327 

Warbles, 338 

Saddle or Harness Galls, 338 

Mallanders and Sellenders, '. .-. 338 

Ulceration of the Udder, 339 

Inflamed Veins, 339 

Sueqigal Cases, 339 



12 CONTENTS. 

DISEASES AND THEIR REMEDIES— Continued. PAGE 

Bleeding, 341 

Neurotomy or Nerving, 342 

Lithotomy, 345 

Trephining, 345 

Tenotomy, , 346 

Couching, 346 

Tapping the Chest 346 

Periosteotomy, 347 

Amputation of the Penis, 347 

(Esophagotomy, 348 

Hernia, 349 

Roweling, 350 

Firing, 351 

Tracheotomy, 352 

RAREY'S METHOD OF TAMING HORSES, 353 

How to Call a Colt from Pasture, 356 

How to Stable a Colt without Trouble, 357 

Approaching a Colt, 362 

How to Halter and Lead A Colt, 364 

How to Tie up a Colt, 367 

How to Tame a Horse, 368 

How tG Make a Horse Lie Down, 369 

To Accustom a Horse to strange Sounds and Sights, 370 

To Accustom a Horse to a Drum, 371 

To Teach a Horse to bear an Umbrella, 372 

To Eire off a Horse's Back, 372 

How to Accustom a Horse to a Bit, 372 

The proper "Way to Bit a Colt, 373 

How to Saddle a Colt, 374 

How to Mount the Colt, 376 

How to Ride a Colt, 378 

How to Break a Horse to Harness, 379 

WARRANTY, 382 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



<®> 

PAGE 

The Arab and his Steed, 17 

The Shetland Pony. —An English Sporting Scene, 21 

The Stallion, 28 

American Farm Scene, 30 

The Canadian, 35 

Black Hawk, — An American Racer, 43 

American Plantation Scene, 47 

The Vermont Draught-Horse, 58 

A Conestoga. — The Great Pennsylvania Draught-Horse, 60 

Ethan Allen, — A Fast-trotting Morgan Horse, 69 

Skeleton of the Horse, as covered by the Muscles, 73 

Names applied to the various External Parts of the Horse, 80 

Eight Days' Teeth, 88 

Three or Four Months' Teeth, 88 

Teeth at Twelve Months, 90 

A Grinder sawed across, 90 

Two Years' Teeth, 91 

Three Years' Teeth, 92 

Four Years' Teeth, 94 

Five Years' Teeth, 95 

Six Years' Teeth, 96 

Seven Years' Teeth, 97 

Eight or Nine Years' Teeth, 98 

Mare and Foal, 102 

The Arab Stallion, Jupiter, 105 

Breaking, 110 

The Agriculturist's Method, 117 

(13) 



14 ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

The Usual Method, 123 

The French Method, 124 

Customary Forms of Stalls, 126 

Grooming, 133 

Exercise, 136 

Out to Grass, ;.... 143 

The American Racer, Black Maria, 147 

Pasturing, 157 

Service, • 169 

Ground Surface of the Hoof, 175 

The Hoof of the Horse, 176 

A Section of the Foot, 177 

The Position of the Shoe, 187 

The Proper Form of a Shoe, 192 

Running Away, 198 

Particularly Dangerous, 204 

Muzzle for a Crih-Biter, 210 

Disagreeable and Dangerous, 214 

The Sick Horse, 220 

The Blooded Mare Fashion, and Foal, 227 

The Saddle-Horse, 232 

Quiet Enjoyment, 237 

The Trotting-Horse, Lexington, 244 

The Attack and Defense, 250 

Omar Pasha, the Turkish Chieftain, 256 

Sir Archy, the Godolphin of America, 262 

Common Gad-Fly or Bot, 265 

Eggs on a Hair, 266 

Eggs Magnified, 266 

Caterpillar, full size, 267 

Caterpillar or Larvae, adhering to the Lining of the Stomach,... 267 

The Red Gad-Fly, 268 

Caterpillar of the Red Gad-Fly, 268 

Virginia Mill-Boys on a Race, 273 

The Fast-Trotting Stallion, Geo. M. Patchen,.. 279 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 15 

PAGE 

The Children's Pet, 285 

The Famous Trotting-Mare, Flora Temple, 292 

The Equestrienne, 298 

The High-Bred Pacing Mare, Pocahontas, 302 

The end of Pericarditis, 309 

Haying Scene, 316 

The Trotting Stallion, American Eclipse, 323 

The Three Friends, 330 

Byron's Mazeppa, 335 

Lady Suffolk, 341 

Good for Heavy Drafts, 349 

The Horse Tamed, 353 

Bridle with a wooden Gag-bit for conquering vicious Horses,... 358 

Strap for the Right Fore-leg, 360 

Strap for the Off Fore-leg, 362 

Taming the Horse, 366 

Teaching the Horse to lie down, 370 

Struggles of the Vicious Horse against lying down, 373 

Submission of the Horse, 377 

Breaking the Horse to Harness, „„,„ 380 




To man, whether as a civilized being 
or as a barbarian, no animal is more 
useful than the horse. The beauty, 
grace, and dignity of this noble creature, when in a properly 
developed state, are as marked as his utility. As an intelligent 
animal, he ranks next in the scale to the dog, that other com- 
panion and friend of man. Taking into consideration, then, 
his usefulness, his attractive appearance, and his intelligence, 
what is known of his history cannot prove unacceptable. 
2 (11) 



18 HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 

In order to ascertain the special land which can claim the 
proud honor of being the parent country, the birth-place of this 
noble animal, recourse must be had primarily to the pages of 
Scripture, as being the most ancient and best authenticated of 
all existing histories. By reference to those pages, we find 
that, although the ass was in early use among the children of 
Israel, the horse was unknown to them until after the com- 
mencement of their dwelling in Egypt; and strong evidence 
exists for the belief that he was not brought into subjection, 
even in that country, until after their arrival. Clear it is, at 
all events, that Arabia, which many have supposed to be the 
native home of the horse, did not possess him until within a 
comparatively recent period ; while his introduction into Greece, 
and thence into those countries of Europe and Asia in which 
he is now found, either wild or domesticated, may be traced 
with much certainty to an Egyptian source. 

Although in the history of Abraham frequent mention is 
made of the ass, of the camel, of flocks and herds, sheep and 
oxen, there is no allusion to the horse ; nor, indeed, do we 
find any such until we reach the time of Joseph. In the 
reign of that Pharaoh in whose service Joseph was, wagons 
were sent by the king's command into Canaan, to bring thence 
into Egypt Jacob and his sons, their wives and their little ones, 
during the prevalence of the famine against which Joseph had 
provided. It is not recorded that those wagons were drawn by 
horses ; but the inference that such was the fact is by no means 
irrational, when we remember that it was during the continu- 
ance of this famine that horses are first mentioned, having 
been taken by Joseph in exchange for bread from the Egyp- 
tian cultivators and cattle-breeders; that on the death of 



HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 19 

Jacob, his funeral was attended by "both chariots and horse- 
men ;" and lastly, that we know from the writings of Homer, 
and from the ancient sculptures of Persepolis and Nineveh, 
that the horse was used for purposes of draught for some time 
previous to his being ridden. 

From this time, the horse appears to have been speedily 
adopted for use in battle. At the Exodus, some fifteen hun- 
dred years before the Christian era, the pursuing army con- 
tained "six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of 
Egypt," together with all the horsemen. And when the 
Israelites returned into Canaan, we find that the horse had 
already been naturalized in that country, since the Canaanites 
" went out to fight against Israel with horses and chariots very 
many." 

From these considerations, and from the fact that, so late as 
six hundred years after this date, Arabia had still no horses, it 
is by no means an improbable conclusion that the shepherd 
kings of Egypt, whose origin is unknown, introduced the horse 
into Lower Egypt; and that, after this period, that country 
became the principal herding district of this animal, whence 
he was gradually introduced into Arabia and the adjoining 
Asiatic countries. From the same stock is doubtless derived 
the entire race in all the southeastern parts of Europe. As 
Egypt is not, in any respect, a favorable country for horse- 
breeding, still less for his original existence in a state of na- 
ture, the source whence he was first introduced into that coun- 
try is in some degree enveloped in uncertainty ; though the 
better opinion, based upon much indirect testimony, is that he 
was an original native of the soil of Africa, which alone was 



20 HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 

the parent country of the Zebra and the Quagga — in some 
sort his kin. 

It is questionable whether the horse is still to be found in a 
state of nature in Arabia ; although it is asserted that they 
exist thinly scattered in the deserts, and that they are hunted 
by the Bedouins for their flesh, and also for the purpose of 
improving their inferior breeds by a different kind of blood. 
In central Africa, however, whence the horse is supposed to 
have been first introduced into Egypt, and thence into Arabia, 
Europe, and the East, wild horses still roam untamed far to 
the southward of the great desert of Sahara, where they were 
seen by Mungo Park in large droves. 

At the period of the first Roman invasion, the horse was 
domesticated in Britain, and in such numbers, that a large 
portion of the forces which resisted the invaders were chariot- 
eers and cavalry. 

In Europe, however, with but few exceptions, the horse, 
for purposes of warfare, was slowly, and not till the lapse of 
ages, brought into use : even the Spartans, the Athenians, 
and the Thebans, when at the height of their military renown, 
having but inferior and scanty cavalry services. 

In the oldest sculptures probably in existence, — those re- 
moved by Layard from the ruins of Nineveh, and illustrative 
of almost every phase of regal and military life, — the horse is 
uniformly represented as a remarkably high-crested, large- 
headed, heavy-shouldered animal : rather long-bodied ; power- 
fully limbed ; his neck clothed with volumes of shaggy mane, 
often plaited into regular and fanciful braids ; and his tail 
coarse and abundant, frequently ornamented similarly to his 
own mane and to the beard and hair of his driver — an ani- 



HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 



21 



mal, indeed, as unlike as possible to the low-statured, delicate- 
limbed, small-headed Arabs and barbs of modern days, with 
their basin-faces, large full eyes, and long, thin manes, from 
which the blood-horse of our times has derived his peculiar 
excellence. The same remarks may, in the main, be made as 
to the Greek and Roman horse, from 
the representations which have come 
down to us. The English blood-horse, 
being confessedly 
the most perfect 
animal of his 
race in the whole 
world, both for 
speed and endur- 
ance, and the 
American blood- 




THE SHETLAND PONT.— AN ENGLISH SPORTING SCENE. 

horse directly tracing without mixture to English, and through 
the English to Oriental parentage, some account of the former 
variety may be of interest to the reader. 

It has already been remarked that large numbers of horses 
were found in Britain at the first Roman invasion. It is to be 
added, that Cassar thought them so valuable that he carried 



22 HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 

many of them to Rome : and the British horses were, for a 
considerable period afterward, in great demand in various 
parts of the Roman Empire. After the evacuation of En- 
gland by the Romans and its conquest by the Saxons, consider- 
able attention was paid to the English breed of horses ; and 
after the reign of Alfred, running horses were imported from 
Germany, this being the first intimation given us in history of 
Tunning horses in England. English horses, after this, were 
so highly prized upon the Continent, that, in order to preserve 
the monopoly of the breed, in a.d. 930 a law was passed, pro- 
hibiting the exportation of the animal. In Athelstan's reign 
many Spanish horses were imported ; and William the Con- 
queror introduced many fine animals from Normandy, Flan- 
ders, and Spain, — circumstances which show the strong desire, 
even at that early period, to improve the English breed. In 
the reign of Henry I. is the first account of the importation 
of the Arab horse into the country, at which time it is evident 
that the English had become sensible of the value and breed 
of their horse : and in the twelfth century a race-course had 
been established in London, — namely, Smithfield, — at onca 
horse-market and race -course. 

King John imported Flemish horses for the improvement of 
the breed for agricultural purposes ; and in his reign is found 
the origin of the draught-horse now in general use in that 
country. Edward II. and Edward III. imported horses for the 
improvement of the stock, the latter introducing fifty Spanish 
horses. In the reign of Henry VII., the exportation of stal- 
lions was prohibited ; but that of mares was allowed, when 
more than two years old, and under the value of six shillings 
and eight pence. In the reign of Henry VIII., many very 



HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 23 

arbitrary statutes were passed for the improvement of the 
horse ; and it was during the same period that an annual race 
was run at Chester. In the reign of Elizabeth, the number 
and breed appear to have degenerated ; for it is stated that 
she could collect but three thousand horse throughout her 
realm to resist the invasion of Don Philip. 

"With the accession of James I. to the throne, a great im- 
provement was systematically wrought in the English breed ; 
and from this period a constant and progressive attention was 
paid to the matter of breeding. This monarch purchased an 
Arabian horse at the then extraordinary price of five hun- 
dred pounds ; but he proving deficient in speed, Arabians 
for a time fell into disrepute. Race meetings were then held 
at various places (Newmarket, among others) throughout the 
kingdom, the races being mostly matches against time, or trials 
of speed or bottom for absurdly long and cruel distances. 

Although Cromwell, during his Protectorate, was obliged 
to forbid racing, yet he was an ardent lover of the horse, an 
earnest patron of all pertaining to horsemanship, and to his 
strenuous exertions the present superior condition of the En- 
glish blood-horse is in no small degree owing. 

Before proceeding to the history of the American horse — 
which is our main concern in the present branch of this 
work — a concise summary of the different varieties of this use- 
ful quadruped cannot fail to interest. We commence with the 
horse of Asia. 



24 HISTORY OF THE HORSE.. 



HORSES OF ASIA AND AFRICA. 



THE ARABIAN. 

In this country the horse, even in its wild state, (in which 
condition, as before remarked, it is rarely found,) is possessed 
of a beautiful symmetry of form, and a disposition of the 
greatest gentleness and generosity. His size is small, averag- 
ing in height generally between thirteen and fourteen hands, 
(the hand being reckoned at about four inches of our measure) ; 
color a dappled grey, though sometimes a dark brown ; mane 
and tail short and black. The only mode of capturing him is 
by snares carefully concealed in the sand, as his exceeding 
swiftness prevents all possibility of taking him by the chase. 
The fondness of the Arab for his steed is well known, having 
long since passed into a proverb. The horse of the poorest 
wanderer of the desert shares with his master and his family 
every attention and caress which the strongest attachment can 
prompt. Mares are always preferred by the Arab to horses, 
as they endure fatigue and the hardships incident to a desert 
life much more patiently, and they can be kept together in 
greater numbers without the risk of quarrels and mutual in- 
juries. Great attention is paid to the coat of the animal. He 
is carefully washed each morning and evening, or after a long 
ride ; is fed only during the night, receiving throughout the 
day nothing but one or two drinks of water. 

The head of the pure Arab is light, well made, wide be- 
tween the nostrils, forehead broad, muzzle short and fine, nos- 
trils expanded and transparent, eyes prominent and sparkling, 
ears small; neck somewhat short; shoulders high and well 



HORSES OF ASIA AND AFRICA. 25 

thrown back; withers high and arched; legs fine, flat, and 
small-boned, and the body somewhat light. 



THE PERSIAW. 

This horse is slightly taller than the Arab : is full of bone, 
and very fast. The Persian feeds his horse as does the Arab, 
the food given being coarse and scant. Hay is utterly un- 
known for the purpose, barley and chopped straw being gener- 
ally substituted. Although this variety is in most respects less 
esteemed than the Arab, it is in some points its superior. 



THE TARTARIAN. 

Like the Persian, this variety is swift ; but the horses are 
heavy-headed, low-shouldered, and altogether very awkwardly 
put together. The Tartars eat the flesh of their horses and 
use the milk of their mares, from which they also make excel- 
lent cheese. 



THE TURKOMAN. 

This is a variety of the Tartar, but superior to it ; bringing, 
even in Persia, frequently from five hundred to a thousand dol- 
lars. Its average height is some fifteen hands, and in general 
appearance it bears a strong resemblance to a well-bred En- 
glish carriage-horse. Though possessed of considerable speed, 
it is not enduring. This variety is often foisted upon the 
ignorant as the pure Arabian. 



THE TURKISH HORSE. 

This horse is a cross between the Persian and the Arabian, 
and is of slender build, carrying his head high, lively and 
fiery, and possessing a gentle and affectionate disposition. 
The tail of the horse is regarded in Turkey and Persia as a 



26 HORSES OF ASIA AND AFRICA. 

badge of dignity, princes measuring their rank by the number 
of tails they carry ; those of the highest rank being allowed 
three. 

HOUSES OF HINDOSTAM-. 

In India, the horse, owing to the peculiar climate of the 
country, is invariably found to degenerate, unless great atten- 
tion be paid to breeding. The principal breeds are the Tazee, 
the Takan, the Folaree, the Cutch, and the Dattywarr. 

Passing from the Asiatic horses to the African, it is to be 
remarked that Egypt has long since lost its character as a 
breeding country, its horses being justly deemed much inferior 
to those of Persia, Barbary, or Arabia. 



THE BARB, AND OTHERS. 

This variety — the principal of the African race — is taller 
than the Arabian, and is remarkable for the height and fullness 
of its shoulders, drooping of the haunches, and roundness of 
the barrel. 

The Bornou race, in the central parts of Africa, is described 
as possessing the qualities of the Arabian with the beauty of 
the Barb ; as being fine in shoulder and of general elegance 
of form. The Nubian horses are stated by travelers to be 
even superior to the Arabian. Dongola has a noticeable 
breed, of large size, their chief peculiarities being extreme 
shortness of body, length of neck, height of crest, and a 
beautiful forehand. 



HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 21 



EUROPEAN HORSES. 



THE RACEE. 

As the varieties of the horse in Great Britain are the most 
noticeable of any in Europe, we append a brief description of 
the principal breeds at present in use. 

The Racer, which excels, in beauty, speed, and endurance, 
that ©f all other nations, was gradually formed by the intro- 
duction of the best blood of Spain, Barbary, Turkey, and 
Arabia, and bears a strong family likeness to each. The cha- 
racteristics of this breed are a high and lofty head, bright and 
fearless eye, small ear, expanded nostril ; arched neck, curved 
on the upper surface, with no curve underneath ; the neck 
gracefully set on ; the shoulder lengthened, oblique, and lying 
well back ; the quarters ample and muscular ; the fore-legs 
straight and fine, but with sufficient bone ; the hinder legs 
well bent, and the pasterns long and springy. 



THE HUNTER. 

The best horses of this breed stand fifteen or sixteen hands 
high : head small ; neck thin, especially beneath the crest, firm 
and arched ; and jaws wide ; lofty forehead ; shoulders as ex- 
tensive and oblique as that of the racer, and somewhat thicker; 
broad chest ; muscular arm ; leg shorter than that of the 
racer ; body also more short and compact ; loins broad ; quar- 
ters long; thighs muscular; hocks well bent, and under the 
horse. 

THE HACKNEY. 

This horse is still more compact than the hunter, with more 



28 EUROPEAN HORSES. 

substance in proportion to his height ; forehead light and 
high ; head small, and placed taperingly upon the neck ; 
shoulders deep and spacious, lying well back ; back straight, 
loins strong ; fillets wide, and withers well raised. Too high 
breeding is considered objectionable in this species, as being 
ill adapted for ordinary riding upon the road. 



THE CART HORSE. 

The principal varieties of this class, are the Cleveland, the 
Clydesdale, the Northamptonshire, the Suffolk Punch, and the 

heavy black or dray 
horse. The Clydesdale 
breed obtains its name 
t from being bred chiefly 
in the valley of 
r the Clyde. They 
? ~jg are strong and 
hardy, have a 
small head, are 
| longer necked 
than the Suffolk, 
with deeper legs 
and lighter bodies. 
the stallion. The Suffolk Punch 

originated by crossing the Suffolk cart mare with the Norman 
stallion. Its color is yellowish or sorrel ; large head, wide 
between the ears, muzzle rather coarse, back long and straight, 
sides flat, fore-end low, shoulders thrown much forward, high 
at the hips, round legs, short pasterns, deep-bellied, and full 
barrel. The modern-bred cart horse of England, originated 




EUROPEAN HORSES. 29 

from a cross with the Yorkshire half-bred stallion, and is of 
much lighter form, and stands much higher. This horse is 
hardy and useful, kindly, and a good feeder. The heavy 
black horse is chiefly bred in Lincolnshire and the Midland 
counties. 



GERMAN, FRENCH, AND SPANISH HORSES. 

The horses of Germany, with the exception of the Hungar- 
ian, are generally large, heavy, and slow. The Prussian, 
German, and the greater part of the French cavalry, are pro- 
cured from Holstein. They are of a dark glossy bay color, 
with small heads, large nostrils, and full dark eyes, being 
beautiful, active, and strong. 

The horses of Sweden and Finland are small, but beautiful, 
and remarkable for their speed and spirit ; those of Finland 
being not more than twelve hands high, yet trotting along 
with ease at the rate of twelve miles an hour. 

The Iceland horse is either of Norwegian or Scottish 
descent. They are very small, strong, and swift. Thousands 
of them live upon the mountains of that barren country, never 
entering a stable, but taught by instinct or habit to scrape 
away the snow, or break the ice, in quest of their meagre food. 

The Flemish and Dutch horses are large, and strongly and 
beautifully formed. The best blood of draught horses is 
owing, in a great degree, to crosses with these. 

The best French horses are bred in Limousin and Nor- 
mandy ; the provinces of Auvergne and Poitou producing 
ponys and galloways, which are excellent saddle-horses and 
hunters. 

The Spanish horse of other days, as the Andalusian charger 



30 



THE AMERICAN HORSE". 



and the Spanish jennets, exists but in history or romance. 
The modern Spanish horse resembles the Yorkshire half-bred, 
with flatter legs and better feet, but a far inferior figure. 

The Italian horses, particularly the Neapolitan, were once 
in high repute ; but, owing mainly to intermixtures of Euro- 
pean, rather than Eastern blood, they have sadly degenerated. 



THE AMERICAN HORSE. 

At a very remote period in the history of America, the horse 
began to be imported from Europe by the earliest settlers ; it 

being conceded that, although 
the horse had, at some former 
time, existed on this continent, 
as is proved by his fossil remains, 
which have been found in abund- 
ance in various parts of the 
country, he had become extinct 
previous to its colonization by 
the white nations. 

It is generally believed that 
the horses which are found in 
a wild state on the pampas or 
plains of South America, and the prairies of North America, 
as far east as to the Mississippi River, are the descendants of 
the parents set loose by the Spaniards at the abandonment 
of Buenos Ayres. This opinion, however, is combated by 
some, on the ground that this date is too recent to account 




AMERICAN FARM SCENE. 



THE AMERICAN HORSE. 31 

for the vast numerical increase, and the great hordes of these 
animals now existing in a state of nature ; and they are in- 
clined to ascribe their origin to animals escaped, or voluntarily 
set at liberty, in the earlier expeditions and wars of the Span- 
ish invaders, the cavalry of that nation consisting entirely of 
perfect horses or mares. 

An opportunity for such an origin must undoubtedly have 
been furnished in the bloody wars of Mexico and Peru ; since 
upon the issue of many battles, which were disastrous to the 
Spaniards, the war-horses, their riders being slain, could have 
recovered their freedom and propagated their species rapidly 
in the wide, luxuriant, and well-watered plains, where the 
abundance of food, the genial climate, and the absence of 
beasts of prey capable of successfully contending with so 
powerful an animal as the horse, would favor their rapid in- 
crease. 

We know, moreover, that De Soto had a large force of cav- 
alry in that expedition in which he discovered the Mississippi, 
and found a grave in its bosom ; and when his warriors re- 
turned home in barques which they built on the banks of the 
"Father of waters," there can be little doubt that their 
chargers must have been abandoned, since their slender vessels, 
built by inexperienced hands for the sole purpose of saving 
their own lives, must have been incapable of containing their 
steeds. 

The first horses imported to America for the purpose of 
creating a stock, were brought by Columbus, in 1493, in his 
second voyage to the islands. The first landed in the United 
States, were introduced into Florida in 1527, by Cabeca de 
Vaca, forty-two in number; but these all perished or were 



32 THE AMERICAN HORSE. 

killed. The next importation was that of De Soto, before 
mentioned, to which is doubtless to be attributed the origin of 
the wild horses of Texas and the prairies, a race strongly 
marked to this day by the characteristics of Spanish blood. 

In 1604, L'Escarbot, a French lawyer, brought horses and 
other domestic animals into Acadia; and in 1608, the French, 
then engaged in colonizing Canada, introduced horses into 
that country, where the present race, though somewhat de- 
generated in size, owing probably to the inclemency of the 
climate, still shows the blood, sufficiently distinct, of the 
Norman and Breton breeds. 

In 1609, the English ships landing at Jamestown, in Vir- 
ginia, brought, besides swine, sheep, and cattle, six mares and 
a horse ; and in 1657, the importance of increasing the stock 
of this valuable animal was so fully recognized, that an act 
was passed, prohibiting its exportation from the province. 

In 1629, horses and mares were brought into the plantations 
of Massachusetts Bay, by one Francis Higginson, formerly of 
Leicestershire, England, from which county many of the 
animals were imported. New York first received its horses in 
1625, imported from Holland by the Dutch West India Com- 
pany, probably of the Flanders breed, though few traces of 
that breed yet exist, unless they are to be found in the Cones- 
toga horse of Pennsylvania, which shows some affinity to it, 
either directly or through the English dray-horse, which latter 
is believed to be originally of Flemish origin. 

In 1750, the French of Illinois procured considerable num- 
bers of French horses ; and since that time, as the science of 
agriculture has improved and advanced, pure animals of many 
distinct breeds have been constantly imported into this country, 



THE AMERICAN HORSE. 33 

which have created in different sections and districts distinct 
families, easily recognized, — as the horses of Massachusetts 
and Vermont, admirable for their qualities as draft-horses, 
powerful, active, and capable of quick as well as heavy work j 
the Conestogas, excellent for ponderous, slow efforts, in team- 
ing and the like ; and the active, wiry horses of the West, well 
adapted for riding, and being in most general use for American 
cavalry purposes. 

It is evident, then, thaC the original stock of the unimproved 
American horse is the result of a mixture of breeds; the 
French, the Spanish, the Flemish, and the English horses 
having all sent their representatives to some one portion at 
least, of the United States and British Provinces, and proba- 
bly still prevailing to a considerable degree in some locations, 
though nowhere wholly unmixed — while, in others, they have 
become so thoroughly mixed and amalgamated, that their 
identity can no longer be discovered. 

In New York, for example, the early importations of tho- 
rough blood, and the constant support of horse-racing, appear 
to have so changed the original Dutch or Flemish stock, that 
the characteristic of her horses is that of the English race, 
with a decided admixture of good blood. In Massachusetts, 
Vermont, and the Eastern States generally, the Cleveland bay, 
and a cross between that and the English dray-horse blood, 
with some small admixture of thorough blood, predominate. 
In Pennsylvania, the most distinct breed appears to be of 
Flemish and English dray-horse origin. In Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, and South Carolina, English thorough blood prevails to 
a great extent ; so much so as to render the inferior class of 
working horses undersized. In Louisiana, and many of the 



34 THE AMERICAN HORSE. 

Western States, French and Spanish blood partly prevail, 
though with a mixture of English blood. It may, in short, be 
generally assumed that, with the exception of the thorough- 
breds, there is scarcely any breed in any part of America 
wholly pure and unmixed ; and that there are very few animals 
anywhere, which have not some mixture, greater or less, of 
the hot blood of the East, transmitted through the English 
race-horse. 

Indeed, with the exception of the Conestoga horse, there is, 
in the United States, no purely-bred draft or cart-horse, nor- 
any breed which is kept entirely for labor in the field or on 
the road, without a view to being used at times for quicker 
work, and for purposes of pleasure or travel. Every horse, 
for the most part, bred in America, is intended to be, in some 
sense, used upon the road ; and it is but asserting a well-known 
fact, when we say, that for docility, temper, soundness of con- 
stitution, endurance of fatigue, hardiness, sure-footedness, and 
speed, the American roadster is not to be excelled, if equaled, 
by any horse in the entire world not purely thorough-bred. 

Of roadsters, two or three families have obtained, in different 
localities, decided reputations for different peculiar qualities : 
such as the Narragansett pacers, the families known as the 
Morgan and Black Hawk, the Canadian, and generally what 
may be called trotters. No one of these, however, with the 
single exception of the Narragansetts, appears to have any 
real claim to be deemed a distinctive family, or to be regarded 
as capable of transmitting its qualities in line of hereditary 
descent, by breeding within itself, without further crosses with 
higher and hotter blood. 

Of the Narragan setts, but little can be said with certainty ; 



THE AMERICAN HORSE. 



35 



for there is reason to believe that, as a distinct variety, with 
natural powers of pacing, they are extinct ; and their origin 
is, in some degree, uncertain. The other families clearly owe 
their merits to a remote infusion of thorough-blood, perhaps 
amounting to one-fourth, or one-third part, some three or four 
generations back. 

The original Canadians were, doubtless, of pure Norman 
'and Breton descent; but, since the Canadas 
have been under British rule, they also ^ 




THE CANADIAN. 



have been largely mixed with, and much improved by, the intro- 
duction of a pure blood ; so that the animals which in late 
years pass here under the name of Canadians, such as Moscow, 
Lady Moscow, and many others of that name, are Canadians 
only in name, differing from other American roadsters simply 
in the fact that they have, for the most part, only two crosses 



36 THE AMERICAN HORSE. 

of the Norman and pure English blood, while the ordinary 
road-horse of the United States is perhaps a combination of 
several distinct English families, with French, Spanish, and 
Flemish crosses, besides an infusion of thorough-blood. 

Of trotters, there is certainly no distinctive breed or family, 
or mode of breeding. The power, the style, the action, the 
mode of going, are the points regarded ; and it is most pro- 
bable, that the speed and the endurance, both of weight and 
distance, depend, more or less, on the greater or inferior 
degree of blood in the animal. 

Indeed, the wonderful superiority of the American roadster 
is attributable to the great popularity of trotting in this 
country, to the great excellence of the trotting-trainers, drivers, 
and riders, arising from that popularity, and to the employ- 
ment of all the very best half and three-quarter-part bred 
horses in the land for trotting purposes, none being turned 
from that use for the hunting-field or park-riding. 

The general American horse, as compared with the English 
horse, is inferior in height of the forehand, in the loftiness and 
thinness of the withers, and in the setting-on and carriage of 
the neck and crest; while he is superior in the general develop- 
ment of his quarters, in the let-down of his hams, and in his 
height behind ; and further remarkable for his formation, ap- 
proaching what is often seen in the Irish horse, and known as 
the goose-rump. Even the American racer stands very much 
higher behind and lower before than his English fellow. 

Another point in which the American horse of all conditions 
differs extremely and most advantageously from the European 
animal, is his greater sure-footedness and freedom from the 
dangerous vice of stumbling. Any one can satisfactorily con- 



THE AMERICAN HORSE. 3T 

vince himself of this, by comparing the knees of hack-horses 
let for hire, either in the cities or rural villages of the United 
States, with those of similar English localities. In this coun- 
try, a broken knee is one of the very rarest blemishes encoun- 
tered in a horse ; while of horses let for hire in England, with, 
the exception of those let by a few crack livery-keepers in 
London, in the Universities, and in one or two other of the 
most important towns in hunting neighborhoods, a majority 
are decidedly broken-kneed. 

The exemption of the horse, on this side of the Atlantic, 
from this fault, is ascribable : first, to the fact, that both the 
pasture-lands and the roads here are far rougher, more broken 
in surface, and more interrupted by stones, stumps, and other 
obstacles, than in the longer cultivated and more finished coun- 
tries of Europe, which teaches young horses to bend their 
knees, and throw their legs more freely while playing with the 
dams in the field ; and also to lift and set down their feet with 
much greater caution even on our great thoroughfares ; 
secondly, to the higher blood and breed of riding-horses in 
England, which are often cantering thorough-breds, liable to 
be unsafe travelers on the road ; and lastly, to the well-known 
circumstance, that most of the hired horses are roadsters — these 
are worn-c*ut or broken-down animals of a higher caste, which 
are deemed, by reason of their disqualification, for a higher 
position, fit for a secondary one, although suited to none, and 
dangerous in any. 

To this admirable quality of the American horse, must be 
added his extreme good temper and docility, in which he un- 
deniably excels any other horse in the world. From the first 
childhood of the animal until he is fully put to work, he re- 



38 THE AMERICAN HORSE 

quires and receives little or no breaking, unless he show quali- 
ties which promise such speed or endurance as to render it 
advisable to train him as a trotter. Even when this is done, 
it is for the purpose of developing his powers, getting him to 
exert himself to the utmost, and teaching him how to move to 
the best advantage ; and not to render him submissive, easy of 
management, or gentle to be handled. There is scarcely ever 
any difficulty in saddling, in harnessing, in backing, or in in- 
ducing him to go. He may be awkward at first, uncouth, shy, 
and timid ; but he is never, one may almost say, violent, spas- 
modic in his actions, and fierce. 

It is true that horses are treated, for the most part, with 
superior judgment and greater humanity in the United States ; 
that the whip is little used, and the spur almost unknown ; 
still the whole of this remarkable difference in temper, on the 
part of the American horse, cannot be attributed to the differ- 
ence of treatment. 

As he begins, moreover, he continues to the end. One 
rarely encounters a kicker, a runaway, an inveterate shyer or 
balker, and hardly ever a furious animal, not to be approached, 
save at the risk of limb or life, in an American horse of any 
class or condition. 

Probably this fact may, in some respects, be attributed to 
the less high strain of blood in the American roadster, and 
still more to the hardier and less stimulating mode of treatment 
to which he is subjected. The heating treatment to which the 
English horse is subjected, unquestionably deprives him, in 
some degree, of the power of enduring long-protracted exer- 
tion, privation, hardship, and the inclemency of the weather ; 
and the pampering, high feeding, excessive grooming, and 



THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 39 

general maintenance of horses in an unnatural and excited 
state of spirits has, assuredly, an injurious effect upon the 
general temper of the animal ; though not, perhaps, so greatly 
as to account for all the difference to which allusion has just 
been made. 

Having premised thus much, in general terms, of the history 
and peculiarities of the general American horse, we will next 
take up the leading varieties which obtain in this country, 
commencing with 

THE AffiEKICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 

Unlike the human race of the United States, unlike the 
ordinary working horse, unlike the cattle and most of the do- 
mestic animals of North America — which cannot be traced or 
said to belong to any single distinct breed or family, having 
originated from the combination and amalgamation of many 
bloods and stocks, derived from many different countries — the 
blood-horse, or racer, of America stands alone, unquestionably 
of pure English thorough-blood. 

What that English thorough-blood is, it is only necessary 
here to say that, although it is not possible, in every instance, 
to trace the great progenitors of the English and American 
turf, directly on both sides, to Desert blood ; and although it 
can scarcely be doubted that, in the very commencement of 
turf-breeding, there must have been some mixture of the best 
old English blood, probably, in great part, Spanish by descent, 
with the true Arab or Barb race ; yet the impure admixture 
is so exceedingly remote, not within fourteen or fifteen genera- 
tions — since which the smallest taint has been carefully ex- 
cluded—that the present race-horse of England or North 



40 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 

America, cannot possess above one sixteen-thousandth part of 
any other blood than that of the Desert. 

Nor can it be doubted, that the modern thorough-bred is 
far superior to the present horse of the East in his qualities 
and powers, as he is in size, bone, strength, and ability to 
carry weight. It is to this very superiority of our thorough- 
bred, which has been proved wherever it has encountered the 
Oriental horse, that it must be ascribed, that no late cross of 
Arab blood has, in the slightest degree, improved the Euro- 
pean or American racer. 

It seems now to be a conceded point, that to improve any 
blood, the sire must be the superior animal ; and, since by care, 
cultivation, superior food, and better management, our descend- 
ant of Desert blood has been developed into an animal supe- 
rior to his progenitors, mares of the improved race can gain 
nothing by being crossed with the original stock ; although it 
is yet to be seen, whether something might not be effected by 
the importation of Oriental mares, and breeding them judiciously 
to modern thorough-bred stallions. 

It has been already stated, that the first systematic attempts 
at improving the blood of the English horse began in the reign 
of King James I., was continued in that of Charles I. and 
during the Commonwealth, and advanced with renewed spirit 
on the restoration of the Stuarts. In the reign of Queen Anne, 
the last of that house who occupied the English throne, the 
English thorough-bred horse may be regarded as fairly estab- 
lished ; the Darley Arabian, sire of Plying Childers, Curwen's 
Barb, and Lord Carlisle's Turk, sire of the Bald Galloway, 
being imported in her reign. Sixteen years after her death, 
and three years before the settlement of Georgia, the youngest 



THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 41 

of the original American colonies, twenty-one foreign, and fifty 
native stallions, some of them the most celebrated horses which 
the world has ever seen, were in service as stock-getters in the 
United Kingdom ; and from some of those are descended all 
our racers of the present day. 

It was precisely during this period that the American colo- 
nies were planted ; and, as might be anticipated, English horses 
of pure blood were introduced at a very early date. Indeed, 
in those sections where the settlement was mainly effected by 
men attached to the Cavalier party, race-horses were kept and 
trained, race-courses were established, and a well-authenticated 
stock of thorough-bred animals, tracing to the most celebrated 
English sires, many of which were imported in the early part 
of the eighteenth century, was in existence for some time before 
the outbreak of the old French war. 

In the Eastern States, whose settlers were mainly attached 
to the Puritan party, and therefore opposed in an especial man- 
ner to horse-racing, very few horses of thorough blood were im- 
ported. 

In Virginia and Maryland, as the head-quarters of the Cav- 
aliers, it is probable that racing commenced simultaneously, or 
nearly so ; it being an attribute of the principal towns of 
Maryland some years prior to Braddock's defeat in 1753. 
In the latter State, indeed, it appears for some time to have 
been considered a part of the duty of the Governor to keep a 
racing stud ; since no less than five successive governors were 
all determined turfmen and supporters of the American racing 
interest. 

As our Revolutionary War interrupted the peaceful progress 
of the country and the avocations of our country gentlemen at 



42 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 

so early a period in the history of the American Turf, the dif- 
ficulty of ascertaining how far records or registries have been 
preserved, or were kept from the first, has been materially en- 
hanced. Yet, on the whole, it may be regarded as remarkable 
rather that so many pedigrees can be unequivocally followed 
out, than that a few should be obscure and untraceable farther 
than to an imported mare. Indeed, it must be granted as a fact 
which cannot be questioned or doubted, fully established both 
by their own performances and by the unfailing transmission of 
their hereditary qualities, that our American horses are as cer- 
tainly thorough-bred as are any of those English champions, 
whose blood no one ever dreams of disputing, which go back, 
like that of Eclipse himself, or many others of equal renown, to 
au unknown dam or sire. 

From Virginia and Maryland, the racing spirit extended 
rapidly into the Carolinas, where it has never to this day flagged. 
The oldest race-courses in this country, which are yet kept up 
for purposes of sport, are the Newmarket course, near Peters- 
burg, Yirginia ; and the Washington course, near Charleston, 
South Carolina. At Alexandria, D. C, there was a race-course 
early in the last century, and the courses in the neighborhood 
of Richmond have been in existence above seventy years. 

It was not until about the commencement of the present cen- 
tury, that what may be called race-courses proper were estab- 
lished in New York ; the first club for the promotion of the breed 
of horses by means of racing dating from 1804; although long 
previously the improvement of the breed of horses had created 
much interest in that State, celebrated stock-getters having 
been imported as early as 1764 and IT 65. 

Into Pennsylvania, a State which has never particularly dis- 



THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 



43 



tinguished itself in the racing turf, were brought at an early- 
date two horses, Gray Northumberland (also called Irish Gray), 
and Old England ; to these must be given the credit of running 
one of the oldest great American time-races on record, as long 
ago as IT 6 1, against two other horses, Selim and Gran by. 

Although the use of the horse for merely racing purposes 

does not at present obtain to as great an extent with us as in 

England — a circumstance which can be readily accounted for 

^ ^jjgjjg ^jfc, from the prejudice which many entertain 




BLACK HAWK— AN AMERICAN RACER 



against such a use, owing to the objectionable accompaniments 
which are too often found in connection with it — still it should 
not be forgotten, that the advantage to be derived from the 
thorough-bred horse depends upon far more than his applica- 
bility to the turf and his fitness for racing purposes. "Were it 
otherwise, it would scarcely be worth while to devote the space 



44 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 

to the consideration of this topic which has, by common con- 
sent, been deemed indispensable. 

The truth is, that the race-course was not, in the beginning, 
so much as thought of as a scene for the display of the high 
qualities of this animal ; much less was racing considered by 
our ancestors as an end for which they imported the Eastern 
horse into Europe. It was for the improvement of the native 
stock of horses in the various European Kingdoms, by giving 
to them speed and endurance, — in which respects no other breed 
can compare with them, — that the Asiatic and North-African 
horse was so eagerly sought by the monarchs, especially of Eng- 
land, during the seventeenth, and the early part of the eigh- 
teenth century. 

The race-course was at first employed solely as a method of 
testing the prevalence or superiority, in certain animals or 
breeds of animals, of these qualities of speed and endurance, 
which can by no other known method be so completely, so accu- 
rately, and so fairly tested. Soon after the introduction of the 
thorough-bred horse, this process of testing his qualities grew 
into a favorite sport with all classes of persons in England. 
After the multiplication of race-courses throughout the king- 
dom and the establishment of racing as a national institution, 
the objects of the possessors and breeders of race-horses under- 
went a change : what had been a means originally, becoming 
eventually, more or less, the end. Horses, in a high form and 
of the most favorite and purest strains of blood, were eagerly 
sought and commanded large prices, for the purposes of sport and 
honorable competition, as was the case in the Olympic Games 
of ancient Greece. 

At a yet later date, a second change of object has taken 



THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 45 

place ; and, with but few exceptions, the thorough-bred horse is 
now kept, both in England and this country, for the paramount 
purpose of money -making, either by the actual winning of his 
prizes, or by his service in the stud, after his racing career is 
ended. 

Still, although the animals employed may be generally kept 
merely for the gratification of cupidity and the excitement of 
the contest, and though racing and race-courses may be subject 
to abuses by far too many, yet such means are, even now, as 
they were intended to be from the first, the best and only mode 
of really improving the general stock of any country. As the 
points of the thorough-bred horse are precisely those which 
constitute the perfection of a blood-horse in a high form as a 
stallion for improving the breed of animals, and for getting the 
best horses from any possible class of mares, for all possible uses, 
unless for the very slowest and most ponderous draught, the de- 
scription of those points which are most generally accepted as 
accurate is subjoined. * 

Purity of blood is an indispensable requisite for the thorough- 
bred horse. By the term "blood," it is not intended to be un- 
derstood that there is any real difference between the blood of 
the thorough-bred horse and that of the half-bred animal, as no 
one could discriminate between the two by any known process. 
The term is here used in the same sense as "breed," and by 
purity of blood is meant purity in the breeding of the individual 
animal under consideration ; that is to say, that the horse 
which is entirely bred from any one source is pure, or free from 
any mixture with others, and may be a pure Suffolk Punch, or 
a pure Clydesdale, or a pure thorough-bred horse. All these 
terms are, however, comparative, since there is no such animal 



46 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 

as a perfectly purely-bred horse of any breed, whether cart-horse, 
hack, or race-horse; all have been produced from an admixture 
with other breeds, and though now kept as pure as possible, yet 
they were originally compounded of varying elements. As, 
however, the thorough-bred horse as he is called, has long been 
bred for racing purposes, and selections have been made with 
that view alone, it is reasonable to suppose that this breed is 
the best for that purpose, and that a stain of any other is a de- 
viation from the classical stream into one more muddy, and 
therefore impure. Indeed, in actual practice this is found to be 
the case ; for in every instance it has resulted that the horse 
bred with the slightest deviation from the sources indicated by 
the stud-book, is unable to compete in lasting power with those 
which are entirely of that breed. Hence it is established as a 
rule, that for racing purposes every horse must be thorough-bred ; 
that is, bred of a sire and dam, whose names are found in the 
stud-book. 

The external form of the blood-horse is of great importance ; 
it being true, other things being equal, that the horse will 
be the best runner which is formed in the mould most like that 
of the greatest number of good race-horses. Still, it is ad- 
mitted on the turf, that high breeding is of more consequence 
than external shape, and that, of two horses, one perfect in 
shape but of an inferior strain of blood, and the other of the 
most winning blood, but in shape not so well formed, the latter 
will be the most likely to give satisfaction on the race-course. 
Hence originates the proverb, "an ounce of blood is worth 
a pound of bone." Yet, in spite of all this recognized superi- 
ority of blood, it is indisputable that for the highest degree of 
success there must be not only high purity of blood, and that 



^xIE AMERICAN ELOOD-IIORSE. 47 

of the most winning strains, but there must also be a frame of 
the most useful character, if not always of the most elegant 
form. Many of our very best horses have been plain and even 
coarse-looking ; but, in spite of their plainness, all their points 
were good and useful, and the deficiency was in mere elegance, 
not in real utility. 

The height of the race-horse varies from fifteen hands to 
sixteen and a half hands, or even seventeen hands ; but the 
general height of our best horses, is about fifteen hands and 
three inches. Few first-class performers have exceeded the 
height of sixteen hands and one inch. The average, above given, 
may be fairly laid down as the best height for the race-horse ; 
though it cannot be denied, that for some small and confined 
courses, a smaller horse, of little more than fifteen hands high, 
has a better chance, as being more capable of turning round 
the constantly recurring angles or bends. 

The head and neck should be characterized by lightness, 
which is essential for this department. Whatever is unneces- 

m sary is so much dead 
weight ; and whatever is 
m found in the 
I head and 
neck, which 
is not neces- 
sary for the 
peculiar pur- 
poses of the 

AMERICAN PLANTATION SCENE. 1'aCe-horSe, IS 

so much weight thrown away, which must still be carried by 
the horse. The head, we may say in detail, should be lean 




48 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 

about the jaw, yet with a full development of forehead, which 
should be convex and wide, so as to contain within the skull 
a good volume of brain. If this fullness exist, all the rest of 
the head may be as fine as possible ; the jaws being reduced to 
a fine muzzle, with a slight hollowing out in front, but with a 
width between the two sides of the lower jaw where it joins 
the neck, so as to allow plenty of room for the top of the 
windpipe when the neck is bent. The ears should be pricked 
and fine, but not too short ; eyes full and spirited ; nostrils 
large, and capable of being well dilated when at full speed, 
which is easily tested by the gallop, after which they ought to 
stand out firmly, and so as to show the internal lining fully. 
The neck should be muscular, and yet light; the windpipe 
loose and separate from the neck, — that is, not too tightly 
bound down by the membrane of the neck. The crest should 
be thin and wiry, not thick and loaded, as is often seen in 
coarse stallions, or even in some mares. 

Between the two extremes of the ewe-neck and its opposite, 
there are many degrees, but for racing purposes the former 
is preferable of the two, to the latter ; for few horses can go 
well with their necks bent so as to draw the chin to the bosom ; 
yet here, as in other cases, the happy medium between the 
two extremes is the most desirable. 

The body, or middle-piece, should be moderately long, and 
not too much confined between the last rib and the hip bone. 
So long as the last or back-ribs are deep, it is not of so much 
importance that they should be closely connected to the hip- 
bone, for such a shape shortens the stride ; and though it 
enables the horse to carry a great weight, yet it prevents him 
from attaining a high rate of speed: The back itself should 



THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 49 

be muscular, and the hips so wide as to allow of a good de- 
velopment of the muscular department. The withers may rise 
gently, but not too high, with that thin, razor-like elevation 
which many people call a good shoulder, but which really has 
nothing to do with that part, and is only an annoyance to the 
saddler, in preventing its being pinched by the saddle. The chest 
itself should be well developed, but not too wide and deep ; no 
horse can go a good distance without a fair "bellows-room;" 
but, supposing the beast to be sound and of good quality, the 
amount of lungs will suffice which may be contained in a 
medium-sized chest, and all above that is wasted, and is extra 
weight. Many of our best-winded horses have had medium- 
sized chests, and some of the very worst have been furnished 
with room enough for a blacksmith's bellows to play in. If 
the heart only does its duty well, the lungs can always furnish 
sufficient air ; and we know that when frequently renewed, and 
with sufficient power, the blood is aerated as fast as it is pro- 
pelled, and the chief difficulty lies in this power of propulsion, 
which resides in the heart alone. If the chest be too wide, it 
materially affects the action of the fore-legs, and, therefore, in 
every point of view, theoretically and practically, there is a 
happy medium between the too great contraction in this de- 
partment, and the heavy, wide, lumbering chests, sometimes 
seen even in the thorough-bred race-horse, especially when 
reared upon rich succulent herbage, more fitted for the bullock 
than for the Eastern horse. In the formation of the hips, the 
essential point is length and breadth of bone for muscular at- 
tachment, and it matters little whether the croup droops a lit- 
tle, or is pretty straight and level, so that there is a good 
length from the hips to the haunch-bone the line between which 



50 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 

two points may be either nearly horizontal, or forming a con- 
siderable angle with the ground ; but still in both cases it 
should be a long line, and the longer it is the more muscular 
substance is attached to it, and the greater leverage will the 
muscles have. 

The fore-quarter, consisting of the shoulder, upper and lower 
arm and leg and foot, should be well set on to the chest ; and the 
shoulder-blade should lie obliquely on the side of that part, with 
a full development of muscle to move it, and thrust it well forward 
in the gallop. Obliquity is of the greatest importance, acting as 
a spring in taking off the shock of the gallop or leap, and also 
giving a longer attachment to the muscles, and in addition en- 
abling them to act with more leverage upon the arm and leg. 
As the shoulder-blade does not reach the top of the withers, 
and as the bones forming that part have nothing to do with 
the shoulder itself, many high-withered horses have bad and 
weak shoulders, and some very upright ones ; whilst, on the 
other hand, many low-withered horses have very oblique and 
powerful shoulders, and such as to give great facility and plia- 
bility to the fore extremity. The shoulder should be very 
muscular, without being over-done or loaded, and so formed 
as to play freely in the action of the horse. The point of the 
shoulder which is the joint corresponding to the human shoulder, 
should be free from raggedness, but not too flat ; a certain degree 
of development of the bony part is desirable, but more than 
this leads to defects, and impedes the action of this important 
part. The upper arm, between this joint and the elbow, 
should be long, and well clothed with muscles ; the elbow set on 
quite straight, and not tied in to the chest ; the lower arm muscu- 
lar and long ; knees broad and strong, with the bony projection 



THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 51 

behind well developed; legs flat, and showing a suspensory liga- 
ment large and free ; pasterns long enough, without being 
weak ; and the feet sound, and neither too large nor too small, 
and unattended with any degree of contraction, which is the 
bane of the thorough-bred horse. 

The hind-quarter is the chief agent in propulsion, and is 
therefore of the utmost consequence in attaining a high speed. 
It is often asserted that the oblique shoulder is the grand 
requisite in this object, and that it is the part upon which speed 
mainly depends, and in which it may be said to reside. This is, 
to some extent, true, because there can be no doubt that with a 
loaded shoulder high speed is impracticable ; for, however 
powerfully the body may be propelled, yet when the fore-quar- 
ter touches the ground it does not bound off again as smartly 
as it ought to do, and the pace is consequently slow. The 
elastic shoulder, on the contrary, receives the resistance of the 
earth, but reacts upon it, and loses very little of the power 
given, by the strike of the hind-quarter, which, nevertheless, 
must be strong and quick, or else there is nothing for the 
shoulder to receive and transmit. For the full action of the 
hind-quarters, two things are necessary, viz : first, length and 
volume of muscle ; and, secondly, length of leverage, upon 
which that muscle may act. Hence, all the bones comprising 
the hind-quarter should be long, but the comparative length 
must vary a good deal, in order that the parts upon which the 
muscles lie may be long, rather than those connected with the 
tendons, which are mere ropes, and have no propelling power 
residing in them, but only transmit that which they derive from 
the muscles themselves. Thus, the hips should be long and 
wide, and the two upper divisions of the limb — viz., the stifle and 



52 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 

lower thigh — should be long, strong, and fully developed. By 
this formation, the stifle-joint is brought well forward, and there 
is a considerable angle between these two divisions. The hock 
should be long and strong, free from gum or spavin, and the 
point long, and so set on as to be free from weakness at the 
situation of curb. In examining the hind-quarter, to judge of 
its muscular development, the horse should not be looked at 
sideways, but his tail should be raised, and it should be ascer- 
tained that the muscles of the two limbs meet together below 
the anus, which should in fact be well supported by them, and 
not left loose, and, as it were, in a deep and flaccid hollow. 
The outline of the outer part of the thigh should be full, and in 
ordinary horses the muscles should swell out beyond the level 
of the point of the hip. This fullness, however, is not often 
seen to such an extent in the thorough-bred horse, until he has 
arrived at mature age, and is taken out of training. The 
bones below the hock should be flat and free from adhesions : 
the ligaments and tendons fully developed, and standing out 
free from the bones ; and the joints well formed and wide, yet 
without any diseased enlargement; the pasterns should be mo- 
derately long, and oblique ; the bones of good size ; and, lastly, 
the feet should correspond to those already alluded to in the 
anterior extremity. 

These points, taken as a whole, should be in proportion to 
one another — that is to say, the formation of the horse should 
be "true." He should not have long, well-developed hind- 
quarters, with an upright, weak, or confined fore-quarter. Nor 
will the reverse of this answer the purpose ; for, however well- 
formed the shoulder may be, the horse will not go well unless he 
has a similar formation in the propeller. It is of great impor- 



THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 53 

tance, therefore, that the thorough-bred horse should have all his 
various points in true relative development, and, that there should 
not be the hind-quarter of a long, racing-like horse, with the 
thick, confined shoulder which would suit a stride less reaching 
in its nature. 

The color of the thorough-bred horse is now generally bay, 
brown, or chestnut, one or the other of which will occur in ninety- 
nine cases out of a hundred ; gray not being common, though 
it sometimes appears. Black, also, occasionally makes its ap- 
pearance, but not more frequently than gray. Roans, duns, 
sorrels, etc., are now quite exploded, and the above five colors 
may be said to complete the list of colors seen in the race-horse. 
Sometimes these colors are mixed with a good deal of white, in 
the shape of blazes on the face, or white legs and feet ; or even 
both may occur, and the horse may have little more than his 
body of a brown, bay, or chestnut. Most people, however, 
prefer the self-color, with as little white as possible ; and nothing 
but the great success of a horse's stock would induce breeders 
to resort to him, if they were largely endowed with white. 
Gray hairs mixed in the coat, are rather approved than other- 
wise ; but they do not amount to a roan, in which the gray 
hairs equal, or even more than that, the other colors mixed 
with them. 

The texture of the coat and skin is a great proof of high- 
breeding, and, in the absence of the pedigree, would be highly 
regarded ; but when that is satisfactory, it is of no use descend- 
ing to the examination of an inferior proof; and, therefore, ex- 
cept as a sign of health, the skin is seldom considered. In all 
thorough-bred horses, however, it is thinner, and the hair more 
silky than in common breeds ; and the veins are more apparent 



54 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE, 

under the skin, partly from its thinness, but also from their 
extra size and number of branches. This network of veins is 
of importance in allowing the circulation to be carried on 
during high exertions, when, if the blood could not accumulate 
in them, it would often choke the deep vessels of the heart 
and lungs ; but, by collecting on the surface, great relief is 
afforded, and the horse is able to maintain such a high and long- 
continued speed, as would be impracticable without their help. 
Hence these points are not useful as a mere mark of breed, 
but as essential to the very purpose for which that breed was 
established. 

The mane and tail should be silky, and not curly, though a 
slight wave is often seen. A decided curl is almost univer- 
sally a mark of degradation, and shows a stain in the pedigree 
as clearly as any sign can do. Here, however, as in other 
cases, the clear tracing of that all-powerful proof of breeding, 
will upset all reasoning founded upon inferior data. The 
setting on of the tail is often regarded as of great importance, 
but it is chiefly with reference to appearances ; for the horse is 
not dependent for action or power upon this appendage. Nor 
is strength of dock of any value as a sign, and many very stout 
horses have been known with flaccid and loosely pendant tails. 

It is well known that certain horses can run half a mile at 
high speed, but no more; others, a mile; others, again, a mile 
and a half, or two miles; whilst another class, now less common 
than formerly, require a distance of three or four miles to de- 
velop their powers, as compared with ordinary horses. These 
peculiarities are generally hereditary, though not always so ; 
but still, when the blood is known, it may generally be surmised, 
that the individual will, or will not, stay a distance. When the 



THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 55 

cross in question is stout on one side, and flashy on the other, 
it is not easy to guess to which the young scion may lean ; but 
in those cases where a horse is bred from sire or dam, both of 
stout blood, or the reverse, the experienced hand may, in almost 
all cases, decide beforehand upon the qualities of the son or 
daughter, as far as staying qualities are concerned. Again, 
there are some horses of strong, compact frames, with short 
backs and strong quarters, who may be expected to climb a hill 
without difficulty, especially if of stout blood ; and, again, there 
are others of lathy frames, with long but weak points, and a 
great deal of daylight under them, who may win over the flat 
for a mile, or a mile and a quarter, but can never climb a hill, 
or get beyond the above distance over a flat. All these points 
should be carefully studied by the breeder in getting together 
his breeding stock, and by the owner in deciding how he will 
enter his young produce in the race. 

In passing from the consideration of the history of the 
American Race-Horse to the examination of other races and 
types of this animal in general use in our country, it must be 
borne in mind, as before remarked, that the thorough-bred horse 
of America is the only family of the horse on this continent of 
pure and unmixed blood. 

In the United States, and British America, the process of 
absorption, or abolition of all the old special breeds, and of the 
amalgamation of all into one general race, which may fairly be 
termed specially "American," possessing a very large admix- 
ture of thorough blood, has gone on far more rapidly than in 
England — the rather that, with the one solitary exception of 
the Norman horse in Canada, no special breeds have ever taken 



56 THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 

root as such, or been bred, or even attempted to be bred in 
their purity, in any part of America. 

In Canada East, the Norman horse, imported by the early 
settlers, was bred for many generations entirely unmixed ; and, 
as the general agricultural horse of that province, exists so yet, 
stunted somewhat in size by the cold climate, and the rough 
usage to which he has been subjected for centuries, but in no 
wise degenerated; for he possesses all the honesty, courage, 
endurance, hardihood, soundness of constitution, and charac- 
teristic excellence of feet and legs of his progenitor. Through- 
out both the provinces, he may be regarded as the basis of 
the general horse, improved as a working animal by crosses of 
English half-bred sires ; and as a roadster, carriage-horse, a 
higher class riding or driving horse, by an infusion of English 
thorough blood. 

All these latter types are admirable animals ; and it is from 
the latter admixture that have sprung many of the most cele- 
brated trotting horses, which, originally of Canadian descent, 
have found their way into the New England States and New 
York, and there won their laurels as American trotters. Still, 
it is not to be denied, that there are in different sections of the 
United States, different local breeds of horses, apparently pecu- 
liar, and now become nearly indigenous to those localities, and 
that those breeds differ not a little, as well in qualities as in 
form and general appearance. A good judge of horse-flesh, 
for instance, will find little difficulty in selecting the draught- 
horse of Boston, that is to say, of Massachusetts and Yennont, 
from those of New York and New Jersey, or any of the three 
from the large Pennsylvania team-horses, or from the general 
stock of the Western States. 



THE VERMONT DRAUGHT-HORSE. 57 

The Vermont draught-horse, and the great Pennsylvania 
horse, known as the Conestoga horse, appear in some considera- 
ble degree to merit the title of distinct families ; inasmuch as 
they seem to reproduce themselves continually, and to have 
done so from a remote period, comparatively speaking, within 
certain regions of country, which have for many years been 
furnishing them in considerable numbers to those markets, for 
which their qualities render them most desirable. 

With the limited information at present accessible as to the 
origin and derivation of these various families, nothing more 
can be done in the present work than to describe the charac- 
teristic points of the breeds in question ; and, by comparison 
with existing foreign races, to approach conjecturally the blood 
from which they are derived, and also the manner in which they 
have been originated, where they are now found. 



THE VERMONT DRAUGHT-HORSE. 

No person familiar with the streets of New York can have 
failed to notice the magnificent animals, for the most part dark 
bays, with black legs, manes, and tails, but a few browns, and 
now and then, but rarely, a deep, rich, glossy chestnut, which 
draw the heavy wagons of the express companies in that city. 
They are the very model of what draught-horses should be; 
combining immense power with great quickness, a very respect- 
able turn of speed, fine show, and good action. 

These animals have almost invariably lofty crests, thin withers, 
and well set-on heads ; and, although they are emphatically 
draught-horses, they have none of that shagginess of mane, tail, 
and fetlocks, which indicates a descent from the black horse 
of Lincolnshire, and none of that peculiar curliness or wavihess 



58 



THE -VERMONT DRAUGHT-HORSE. 



which marks the existence of Canadian or Norman blood for 
many generations, and which is discoverable in the manes and 
tails of very many of the Morgan horses. 

The peculiar characteristics of these horses are, however, the 
shortness of their backs, the roundness of their barrels, and the 
closeness of their ribbing-up. One would say, that they are 
ponies, until he comes to stand beside them, when he is as- 
tonished to find that they are often er 
over, than under, sixteen hands in height. 




THE VERMONT DRAUGHT-HORSE. 



Nine out of ten of these horses are from Vermont ; and not only 
are they the finest animals in all the United States, for the 
quick draught of heavy loads, but the mares of this stock are 
incomparably the likeliest, from which, by a well-chosen tho- 
rough-bred sire, to raise the most magnificent carriage-horses in 
the world. 

As to the source of this admirable stock of horses, it may be 



THE VERMONT DRAUGHT-HORSE. 59 

said, that the size, the action, the color, the comparative free- 
dom from hair on the limbs, the straightness of the longer hairs 
of the mane and tail, and the quickness of movement, would at 
once lead one to suspect a large cross, perhaps the largest of 
any, on the original mixed country horse, of Cleveland Bay. 
There are, however, some points in almost all of these horses, 
which must be referred to some other foreign cross than the 
Cleveland, not thorough bred, and certainly, as above remarked, 
not Norman or Canadian, of which these animals do not exhibit 
any characteristic. These points are, principally, the shortness 
of the back, the roundness of the barrel, the closeness of the 
ribbing-up, the general punchy or pony build of the animal, 
and its form and size, larger and more massively muscular than 
those of the Cleveland Bay, yet displaying fully as large, if not 
a larger, share of blood than belongs to that animal in its un- 
mixed form. 

The prevalent colors of this breed also appear to point to 
an origin different, in part, from that of the pure Cleveland 
Bays, which lean to the light or yellow bay variation, while 
these New Englanders tend as decidedly to the blood bay, if 
not to the brown bay, or pure brown. These latter are espe- 
cially the dray-horse colors, and the points above specified are 
those, in a great measure, of the improved dray-horse. The 
cross of this blood in the present animal, if there be one, is 
doubtless very remote ; and, whether it may have come from a 
single mixture of the dray stallion long since, or from some 
half-bred imported stallion, perhaps got by a three-part tho- 
rough bred and Clevelander from a dray mare, must, of course, 
be doubtful. One need have little hesitancy in asserting that 
the bay draught-horse of Vermont, has in its veins, principally 



60 THE CONES'TOGA HORSE. 

Cleveland Bay blood, with some cross of thorough blood, one 
at least, directly or indirectly, of the improved English dray- 
horse, and not impossibly a chance admixture of the Suffolk. 



THE CONESTOGA HORSE. 

In appearance this noble draught-horse approaches far more 
nearly to the improved light-class London dray-horse, and has 
little, if any, admixture of Cleveland Bay, and certainly none 




A CONESTOGA— THE GREAT PENNSYLVANIA DRAUGHT-HORSE. 

of thorough blood. He is a teamster, and a teamster only ; 
but a very noble, a very honest, and a moderately quick-work- 
ing teamster. In size and power some of these great ani- 
mals employed in draught upon the railroad track in Market 
street, Philadelphia, are little, if at all, inferior to the dray- 
horses of the best breweries and distilleries in London ; many 



THE CONESTOGA HORSE. 61 

of them coming fully up to the standard of seventeen or seven- 
teen and a half hands in height. 

In color, also, they follow the dray-horses ; being more often 
blood-bays, brown, and dapple-grays than of any other shade. 
The bays and browns, moreover, are frequently dappled also in 
their quarters, which is decidedly a dray-horse characteristic 
and beauty ; while it is, in some degree, a derogation to a horse 
pretending to much blood. This peculiarity is often observ- 
able also in the larger of the heavy Vermont draught-horses, 
and is not unknown in the light and speedy Morgan. 

They have the lofty crests, shaggy volumes of mane and tail, 
round buttocks, hairy fetlocks, and great round feet of the 
dray-horse ; they are, however, longer in the back, finer in the 
shoulder, looser in the loin, and perhaps, fatter in the side than 
their English antitypes. They do not run to the unwieldy 
superfluity of flesh, for which the dray-horse is unfortunately 
famous ; they have a lighter and livelier carriage, a better step 
and action, and are, in all respects, better travelers, more 
active, generally useful, and superior animals. 

They were for many years, before railroads took a part of 
the work off their broad and honest backs, the great carriers 
of produce and provisions from the interior of Pennsylvania to 
the seaboard, or the market ; and the vast white-topped wagons, 
drawn by superb teams of the stately Conestogas, were a dis- 
tinctive feature in the landscape of that great agricultural 
State. The lighter horses of this breed, were the general farm- 
horses of the country ; and no one, who is familiar with the 
agricultural regions of that fine State, can fail to observe that 
the farm-horses generally, whether at the plough, or on the 



62 THE CANADIAN HORSE. 

road, are of considerably more bulk and bone than those of 
New York, New Jersey, or the Western country. 

Of the Gonestoga horse, although it has long been known 
and distinguished by name as a separate family, nothing is 
positively authenticated, from the fact that such pedigrees. 
have never been, in the least degree, attended to ; and, perhaps, 
no less from the different language spoken by the German 
farmers, among whom this stock seems first to have obtained, 
and by whom principally it has been preserved. It would ap- 
pear, however, most probable, taking into consideration the 
thrifty character, and apparently ample means of the early 
German settlers, their singular adherence to old customs and 
conservatism of old-country ideas, that they brought with them 
horses and cattle, such as Wouverraans, and Paul Potter painted ; 
and introduced to the rich pastures of the Delaware and the 
Schuylkill, the same type of animals which had become famous 
in the similarly constituted lowlands of Flanders, Guelderland, 
and the United Provinces. 



THE CANADIAN EORSE. 

The Canadian is generally low-sized, rarely exceeding fifteen 
hands, and more often falling short of it. His characteristics 
are a broad, open forehead; ears somewhat wide apart, and not 
unfrequently a basin face ; the latter, perhaps, a trace of the 
far remote Spanish blood, said to exist in his veins; the origin 
of the improved Norman or Percheron stock, being, it is usually 
believed, a cross of the Spaniard, Barb by descent, with the 
old Norman war-horse. 

His crest is lofty, and his demeanor proud and courageous. 
His breast is full and broad ; his shoulder strong, though some- 



THE CANADIAN HORSE. 63 

what straight, and a little inclined to be heavy ; his back broad, 
and his croup round, fleshy, and muscular. His ribs are not, 
however, so much arched, nor are they so well closed-up, as his 
general shape and build would lead one to expect. His legs 
and feet are admirable ; the bone large and flat, and the sinews 
big, and nervous as steel-springs. His feet seem almost un- 
conscious of disease. His fetlocks are shaggy ; his mane 
voluminous and massive, not seldom, if untrained, falling on 
both sides of his neck; and his tail abundant; both having a 
peculiar crimpled wave, never seen in any horse which has not 
some strain of this blood. 

He cannot be called a speedy horse in his pure state ; but 
he is emphatically a quick one, an indefatigable, undaunted 
traveler, with the greatest endurance, day in and day out, 
allowing him to go his own pace — say from six to eight miles 
the hour — with a horse's load behind him, of any animal one 
can derive. He is extremely hardy, will thrive on any thing, 
or almost on nothing ; is docile, though high-spirited, remark- 
ably sure-footed on the worst ground, and has fine, high action, 
bending his knee roundly, and setting his foot squarely on the 
ground. As a farm-horse and ordinary farming roadster, there 
is no better or more honest animal; and, as one to cross with 
other breeds, whether upwards by the mares to thorough-bred 
stallions, or downwards by the stallions to common country 
mares of other breeds, he has hardly any equal. 

From the upward cross, with the English or American tho- 
rough-bred on the sire's side, the Canadian has produced some 
of the fastest trotters and the best gentleman's road and saddle- 
horses in the country ; and, on the other hand, the Canadian 
stallion, wherever he has been introduced, as he has been largely 



64 THE INDIAN PONY. 

in the neighborhood of Skaneateles, and generally in the western 
part of the State of New York, is gaining more and more favor 
with the farmers, and is improving the style and stamina of 
the country stock. He is said, although small himself in stature, 
to have the unusual quality of breeding up in size with larger 
and loftier mares than himself, and to give the foals his own 
vigor, pluck, and iron constitution, with the frame and general 
aspect of their dams. This, it may be remarked in passing, 
appears to be a characteristic of the Barb blood above all others, 
and is a strong corroboration of the legend, which attributes to 
him an early Andalusian strain. 



THE INDIAN PONY. 

The various breeds of Indian ponies found in the West, 
generally appear to be the result of a cross between the Southern 
mustang, descended from the emancipated Spanish horses of 
the Southwest, and the smallest type of the Canadian, the pro- 
portions varying according to the localities in which they are 
found ; those further to the South sharing more largely of the 
Spanish, and those to the North of the Normal blood. 

These little animals, not exceeding thirteen hands in height, 
have, many of them, all the characteristics of the pure Cana- 
dians, and, except in size, are not to be distinguished from 
them. They have the same bold carriage, open countenance, 
abundant hair, almost resembling a lion's mane, the same 
general build, and, above all, the same iron feet and legs. 
They are merry goers, and over a hard and good road can 
spin along at nearly nine miles in the hour. They are dis- 
tinguished for their wonderful sure-footedness, sagacity, and 
docility. They are driven without blinkers or bearing reins, 



THE NARRAGANSETT PACER. 65 

and where, as is often the case, bridges seem doubtful, the 
bottom of miry fords suspicious of quagmires, or the road other* 
wise dangerous, they will put down their heads to examine, try 
the difficulty with their feet, and, when satisfied, will get 
through or over places which seem utterly impracticable. 

Whence this peculiar pony breed of Canadians has arisen 
cannot with certainty be traced ; it seems, however, to be almost 
entirely peculiar to the Indian tribes, and, therefore, may have 
been produced by the dwarfing process, which will arise from 
hardship and privation, endured for generation after generation, 
particularly by the young animals and mares while heavy with 
foal. Most of these animals have no recent cross of the Spanish 
horse ; although some ponies approaching nearly to the same 
type, show an evident cros of the Mustang ; and many animals 
called Mustangs, have in them some unmistakable Canadian 
blood. 



THE NARRAGANSETT PACER. 

This beautiful animal, which, so far as can now be ascertained, 
has at present entirely ceased to exist, and concerning which 
the strangest legends and traditions are afloat, was, it may be 
asserted with comparative certainty, of Andalusian blood. The 
legends, to which allusion has been made, are two-fold; or, 
rather, there are two versions of the same legend ; one saying 
that the original stallion, whence the breed originated, was 
picked up at sea, swimming for his life, no one knew whence 
or thither, and, that he was so carried in by his salvors to the 
Providence Plantations ; the other, evidently another form of 
the same story, stating that the same original progenitor was 
discovered running wild in the woods of Rhode Island. 



66 THE NARRAGANSETT PACER. 

The question, however, thus far seems to be put at rest by 
the account of these animals, given in a note to the very curious 
work, "America Dissected," by the Rev. James McSparran, 
D. D., which is published as an appendix to the History of the 
Church of Narragansett, by Wilkins Updike. In this work, 
the Doctor twice mentions the pacing horse, which was evi- 
dently at that remote date, (11 21-59,) an established breed in 
that province. "To remedy this," he says — "this" being the 
great extent of the parishes in Virginia, of which he is at first 
speaking, and the distance which had to be traveled to church, 
— " as the whole province between the mountains, two hundred 
miles up, and the sea, is all a champaign and without stones, 
they have plenty of a small sort of horses, the best in the world, 
like the little Scotch Galloways ; and 'tis no extraordinary jour- 
ney to ride from sixty to seventy miles, or more, in a day. I 
have often, but upon large pacing horses, rode fifty, nay, sixty 
miles a day, even here in New England, where the roads are 
rough, stony, and uneven." Elsewhere he speaks more point- 
edly of the same breed. ''The produce of this Colony," 
(Rhode Island,) "is principally butter and cheese, fat cattle, 
wool, and fine horses, which are exported to all parts of English. 
America. They are remarkable for fieetness and swift pacing', 
and I have seen some of them pace a mile in a little more than 
two minutes, and a good deal less than three." 

If the worthy doctor of divinity was a good judge of pace, 
and had a good timing watch, it would seem that the wonderful 
me of our fleetest racers was equaled, if not outdone, up- 
wards of a century ago ; at all events, he establishes, beyond a 
peradventure, the existence of the family, and its unequaled 
powers both of speed and endurance. 



THE NARRAGANSETT PACER. 67 

To the latter extract is attached a lengthy note, a portion 
of which we give. " The breed of horses, called ' Narragansett 
Pacers, 7 once so celebrated for fleetness, endurance, and speed, 
has become extinct. These horses were highly valued for the 
saddle, and transported the rider with great pleasantness and 
sureness of foot. The pure blood could not trot at all. For- 
merly, they had pace races. Little Neck Beach, in South 
Kingston, one mile in length, was the race-course. A silver 
tankard was the prize, and high bets were otherwise made on 
the speed. Some of these prize tankards were remaining a 
few years ago. Traditions respecting the swiftness of these 
horses are almost incredible. Watson, in his ' Historical Tales 
of Olden Times, ' says: 'In olden time, the horses most valued 
were pacers, now so odious deemed. To this end the breed 
was propagated with care. The Narragansett pacers were in 
such repute, that they were sent for, at much trouble and ex- 
pense, by some who were choice in their selections.'" 

The most natural reason assignable for the extinction of this 
breed, would seem to be somewhat as follows. Up to the be- 
ginning of the present century in this country, — much as it was 
half a century yet farther back in England, — the roads were 
so bad, as to be, except in the finest weather, utterly imprac- 
ticable for wheel-carriages ; and that, except on the great turn- 
pike-roads, and in the immediate vicinity of the larger towns, 
private pleasure-vehicles were almost unknown ; all long jour- 
neys, with few exceptions, all excursions for pleasure or for 
ordinary business, and all visitings between friends and neigh- 
bors being performed by both sexes on the saddle. At that 
time there was, therefore, a demand, as an actual necessity, foi' 
speedy, and, above all, for easy and pleasant-going saddle-horses. 



68 THE NARRAGANSETT PACER. 

Pacers, whenever they could be found, would most readily 
answer the desired end. 

The expense of this was, of course, considerable, since the 
pacer could not be used for any other purpose ; when, there- 
fore, the roads improved, in proportion to the improvement of 
the country and the general increase of the population, wheel- 
carriages generally came into use, and the draught-horse took 
the place of the saddle-horse. It was soon found that a horse 
could not be kept even tolerably fit for the saddle, if he was 
allowed to work in the plough or draw the team, while the 
same labor in no wise detracted from the chaise or carriage- 
horse. The pacer, therefore, gave way to the trotter; and the 
riding-horse, from being an article of necessity, became ex- 
clusively one of luxury; to such a degree, that, until compara- 
tively a recent period, when ladies began again to take up 
riding, there have been very few distinctively broken riding- 
horses, and still fewer kept exclusively as such in the Northern 
States of America. 

This, unquestionably, is the cause of the extinction of the 
pacer, although there have been pacing-horses in the eastern 
section of this country, professedly from Rhode Island, and 
called by names implying a Narragansett origin ; and although 
it may well be that they were from that region, and possibly, 
in a remote degree, from that blood, yet they did not pace 
naturally because they were Narragansett Pacers, but were so 
called, because coming somewhere from that region of country, 
they paced by accident — as many chance horses do — or, in some 
instances, had been taught to pace. 

Considering the rare qualities of this variety, and its ad- 
mirable adaptedness for many purposes of pleasure and conve- 



THE MORGAN HORSE. 



69 



nience, it is a matter for real regret that the family has entirely 
disappeared, presumably without any prospect or hope of its 
resuscitation. 



THE MOEGAW HORSE. 

Within a few years past the sporting world have become 
familiar with a class or type of horses coming from the State 
of Vermont, known as the Morgan horse ; in behalf of which a 
claim has been made, that it is a distinct family, directly de- 
scended from a single horse, owned a little 




gg^s^a** ' ,w ^^^5|^fe 



ETHAN ALLEN — A FAST TROTTING MORGAN HORSE. 

before and a little after the commencement of the present cen- 
tury, by Justin Morgan, of Randolph, in Vermont, from whom 
the name takes its rise. 

Without choosing to go into an examination of the validity 
of this claim — relative to which question an amount of bicker- 
ing, crimination and recrimination has sprung up, sufficient to 



70 THE MORGAN HORSE. 

furnish the stock in trade of all our stump orators for the next 
fifty Presidential campaigns — we content ourselves here with 
alluding to the strong points and excellencies of this particular 
variety, (for such the most sturdy opponents to its rank as a 
distinct family freely admit that it possesses,) referring the 
reader, who is curious in such matters, to the appropriate trea- 
tises for and against the claim, which have been as voluminous 
as the most prolix of Presidential messages. 

" The original, a ' Justin Morgan' " — we now quote from 
11 Morgan Horses," by P. C. Linsley — " was about fourteen 
hands high, and weighed about nine hundred and fifty pounds. 
His color was dark-bay, with black legs, mane, and tail. He 
had no white hairs upon him. His mane and tail were coarse 
and heavy, but not so massive as has been sometimes described ; 
the hair of both was straight, and not inclined to curl. His 
head was good, not extremely small, but lean and bony, the face 
straight, forehead broad, ears small and very fine, but set rather 
wide apart. His eyes were medium size, very dark and promi- 
nent, and showed no white around the edge of the lid. His 
nostrils were very large, the muzzle small, and the lips close 
and firm. His back and legs were, perhaps, his most noticeable 
points. The former was very short ; the shoulder-blades and 
thigh-bones being very long and oblique, and the loins exceed- 
ingly broad and muscular. His body was rather long, round 
and deep, close-ribbed up ; chest deep and wide, with the breast- 
bone projecting a good deal in front. His legs were short, 
close-jointed, thin, but very wide, hard and free from meat, with 
muscles that were remarkably large for a horse of his size ; and 
this superabundance of muscle manifested itself at every step. 
His hair was short, and at almost all seasons short and glossy. 



THE MORGAN HORSE. fl 

He had a little long hair about the fetlocks, and for two or 
three inches above the fetlock, on the back-side of the legs ; the 
rest of his limbs were entirely free from it. His feet were small, 
but well-shaped ; and he was in every respect perfectly sound 
and free from blemish. He was a very fast walker. In trotting, 
his gait was low and smooth, and his step short and nervous ; 
he was not what in these days would be called fast, and we 
think it doubtful whether he could trot a mile much, if any, 
within four minutes, although it is claimed by many that he 
could trot in three. 

"Although he raised his feet but little, he never stumbled. 
His proud, bold, and fearless style of movement, and his vigor- 
ous, untiring action have, perhaps, never been surpassed. * 
***** He was a fleet runner at short distances. 
Running short distances for small stakes, was very common in 
Vermont fifty years ago. Eighty rods was very generally the 
length of the course which usually commenced at a tavern or 
grocery, and extended the distance agreed upon up or down the 
public road. In these races the horses were started from a 
scratch ; that is, a mark was drawn across the road in the dirt, 
and the horses, ranged in a row upon it, went off at the drop- 
ping of a hat, or some other signal. 

"It will be observed that the form of Justin Morgan was not 
such as, in our days, is thought best calculated to give the 
greatest speed for a short distance. Those who believe in long- 
legged racers will think his legs, body, and stride, were all too 
short, and to them it may, perhaps, seem surprising that he 
should be successful, as he invariably was, in such contests." 

The qualities claimed for this stock are neat style, good 
trotting action, great honesty, great quickness and sprightliness 



72 THE MORGAN HORSE. 

of movement, — apart from extraordinary speed, which is not 
insisted upon as a characteristic of the breed, although some 
have possessed it — and considerable powers of endurance. 
There has been some conflict of opinion concerning the courage 
and endurance of the Morgans, and their ability to maintain a 
good stroke of speed, say ten miles an hour, for several hours 
in succession ; but it is now well established that this exception 
has not been fairly taken, and that these horses lack neither 
courage nor ability to persevere, though not at a high rate of 
speed. 

By fair deduction from the various conflicting accounts of 
the Morgans, as they now exist, it may be stated that they are a 
small, compact, active style of horse, showing the evidence of a 
strain of good blood. They rarely, if ever, exceed fifteen hands 
two inches, and it is probable that a hand lower, or from that 
up to fifteen, is nearer to their standard. They are not par- 
ticularly closely ribbed up, and many of them incline to be 
sway-backed. Their hind-quarters are generally powerful, and 
their legs and feet good. There is an evident family resem- 
blance in their foreheads, their neck and crests being so often, 
as to render the mark somewhat characteristic, lofty but erect, 
without much curvature, and the neck apt to be thick at the 
setting-on of the head, which, though good, is rarely blood-like. 
The manes and tails are almost invariably coarse, as well as 
heavy and abundant, and have very often a strong wave, or 
even curl, of the hair. 

It is admitted by the most strenuous opponents of this horse 
as a distinct family, that the very best general stock for breed- 
ing for general work — namely, a high cross of the very best 
thorough-bred on the sires side, with the very best general stock 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 73 

on the dam's — is to be found, so far as the United States are 
concerned, on the frontiers of Vermont, and that of the most 
approved quality. 

Having given the history of the various types or families of 
the horse throughout the world, we next propose taking up 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 




SKELETON OP THE HOKSE AS COVERED BY THE MUSCLES. 

1, 1. The seven cervical vertebrae, or bones of the neck. 2. The sternum, or breast- 
bone. 3. The scapula, or shoulder-blade. 4. The humerus, or bone of the arm. 5, 
5. The radius, or bone of the fore-arm. 6. The ulna, or elbow. 7. The cartilages of 
the ribs. 8, 8, 8. The costse, or ribs. 9. The carpus, or seven bones. 10, 10. The 
metacarpal, or shank-bones : the larger metacarpal, or cannon, or shank-bone, in 
front ; and the small metacarpal, or splint-bone, behind. 11. The upper pastern. 
12. The lower pastern. 13. The coffin-bone. 14 to 14. The eighteen dorsal vertebrae, 
or bones of the spine. 15. The six lumbar vertebrae, or bones of the loins. 16, 16. The 
haunch, consisting of the ilium, the ischium, and the pubis. 17, 17. The femur, or 
thigh-bone. 18, 18. The stifle-joint, with the patella, or knee-cap. 19, 19. The tibia, 
or proper leg-bone. 20. The fibula. 21, 21. The tarsus, or hock. 22. The metatarsal 
bones of the hind-leg. 23, 23. The pastern of the hind-feet, including the upper and 
larger bone, (fig. 23,) the lower pastern, (fig. 25,) and the coffin-bone. (fig. 24.) 26, 26. 
The caudal vertebrae, or tail-bones. 

Division. Vertebrata — possessing a back-bone. 
Class. Mammalia — such as give suck. 
Order. Pachydermata — thick-skinned. 



74 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 

Family. Solipeda — uncleft-footed. 

Genus. Equus — the horse family. 

With the horse are ranked all those quadrupeds, whose generic 
distinction is the undivided hoof — the equine genus. 

Equus caballus, the horse. 

Equus Hemionus, the dziggtai, Asiatic. 

Equus Zebra, the zebra, ~\ 

Equus Burchelli, I South African. 

Equus Quagga, the Quagga, J 

Equus Asinus, the ass. 

The horse by far the noblest of the genus, is easily distin- 
guishable from the rest of the group. His varieties are exceed- 
ingly numerous, and differ widely in physical appearance. The 
eifects of climate and other agencies are displayed in his frame. 
It has been asserted, though not upon sufficient basis, that he 
arrives at the greatest perfection between the fifteenth and fifty- 
fifth degrees of northern latitude. The mare is found capable 
of generating her species as early as the second year of her 
existence ; but it is detrimental to her form and the future ener- 
gies of her offspring, thus prematurely to tax the productive 
powers of her frame. It would be far more profitable to delay 
this important function to the fourth or fifth year, when the 
outline of her form approximates more closely to that of the 
adult, and the vital energies of the animal economy become 
more confirmed. Mares, in common with the females of many 
other quadrupeds, are subject to a periodical appetency for the 
male, which in them is termed horsing. The natural season of 
its first occurrence is from the end of March to July, and so 
providential is this arrangement, that the foal will be produced 
at a time when nourishment is plentiful for its support. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. T5 

Common assertion fixes the period of gestation, or the time 
intervening between conception and foaling, at eleven months ; 
whether lunar or calendar, is not explained. This discrepancy- 
will appear the more unsatisfactory, when it is recollected that 
eleven calendar months want but two days of twelve lunar 
months. By various investigations made in France, it has been 
established that the term of eleven calendar months was often 
exceeded by several weeks ; and sometimes, though less fre- 
quently, parturition took place within that period. Some 
breeders entertain an opinion, that old brood-mares carry the 
foal considerably longer than young ones ; but no satisfactory 
evidence is offered by them in support of this opinion. 

The indications of approaching parturition are enlargement 
of the external parts of generation, and a gummy exudation 
from the orifice of the teats. Birth generally takes place 
within twenty-four hours after the appearance of the latter 
symptom; but the first acts as a warning, by preceding it for 
several days. It is but seldom that the mare requires manual 
assistance at the time of foaling, which generally takes place, 
Without difficulty or danger in the night. The mare, unlike the 
generality of quadrupeds, foals standing. She rarely produces 
twins, and when double births do occur, the offspring almost 
invariably die. 

As great facility of motion appears to have been designed by 
nature in the formation of the horse, many physical peculiarities 
contribute to insure that end. A bulky, pendulous udder, like 
that possessed by some of the ruminantia, would be incom- 
patible with that quality. The mamma, therefore, is small, and 
furnished with only two teats, which supply a milk of a highly 



76 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 

nutritious character, and possessing a larger quantity of saccha- 
rine matter than any other animal is known to possess. 

The disproportionate length of the foal's legs, which is so 
strikingly apparent, when compared with those of the adult 
animal, is thought by some naturalists to be provided by pre- 
scient nature to enable the young animal to keep pace with 
its dam during flight from any menacing danger. Linnaeus 
attempted to ascertain the future height of the colt by admea- 
surement of its legs ; but so much is found to depend upon the 
quantity and character of the nutriment with which it is pro- 
vided during the period of its growth, that little reliance can 
be placed upon early experiments of this kind. The historian, 
the warrior, and the horseman, Xenophon, has long ago 
alluded to the same subject in his treatise upon horsemanship. 
"I now explain," said he, "how a man may run the least risk 
of being deceived, when conjecturing the future height of a 
horse. The young horse, which, when foaled, has the shank- 
bone the longest, invariably turns out the largest. For, as time 
advances, the shank-bones of all quadrupeds increase but little ; 
but that the rest of the body may be symmetrical, it increases 
in pro portion.' ? 

Puberty commences in both sexes as early as the second year, 
bat all the structures continue to be gradually developed until 
the end of the fifth year, by which time the changes in the teeth 
are perfected, and the muscles have acquired a growth and tone 
which give to the form the distinctives of adolescence. It is 
during the term which elapses between the period of adult age 
and that of confirmed virility, that a further progressive change 
takes place in the animal economy ; the powers of the whole 
frame continue to acquire strength, and although there is no 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. H 

further increase in height, the parietes of the large cavities and 
the muscles of voluntary motion assume a finished and rotund 
appearance, and render the animal more capable of enduring 
continued privation and exertion ; the vital endurance and re- 
sistance being greater than during the period of adolescence. 
The fire and expression of the head, the spirit, character, and 
disposition, become also more marked toward the termination 
of this epoch. 

The natural period of the decay of the vital powers, senility, 
and mature death, may be conjectured to be about thirty years ; 
but few horses, owing to our barbarous treatment, attain that 
term. 

The walk, the trot, and the gallop are the usually well-known 
natural paces of the horse ; but the fact of some individuals 
contracting the pace called amble (which is neither racking or 
pacing), without previous tuition, has induced many writers to 
regard that also as a natural method of progression. 

In England, and other northern countries, on the approach 
of mild weather, the horse, by a natural process, analogous to 
moulting in birds, divests himself of his winter's clothing of long 
hair, and produces one of a shorter and cooler texture; and 
again, before the recurrence of cold weather, reassumes his warm 
and lengthened coat to protect himself from the inclemency of 
the approaching season. The autumnal change is not by any 
means so general as that which takes place at the commence- 
ment of spring ; in America, however, at least in the northern 
parts, this change is invariable. The hair is not so completely 
changed ; only a portion of it is thrown off, and that which re- 
mains, with that which springs up, grows long, and is adapted 
to the temperature of the atmosphere. These alternate changes 



T8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 

are not so well marked in countries possessing an even tem- 
perature, nor even are they so plainly seen in horses kept in the 
warm atmosphere of a close stable all the year round. When 
the shedding of the coat commences, the bulbs of the old hair 
become pale, and by the side of each a small black globular 
body is formed, which is soon developed into the new hair. 
Thus the matrix of the new hair is not the old bulb, but it is 
based in another productive follicle. The long hair of the 
mane, tail, and fetlocks is not shed at definite periods with that 
of the body, but is replaced by a shorter and more uniform 
process. The hair of the mane and tail will, if protected, grow 
to an almost incredible length. 

The property of changing the color of the hair with the 
season, possessed by many animals of the arctic region, adapting 
them to the temperature, is also manifested in the horse, though 
in a much less degree, for it may be seen that when constantly 
exposed to the elements, the long winter-coat assumes a much 
lighter hue than that of its predecessor. 

The horse in common with many other animals, is provided 
with a thin, sub-cuticular muscle, covering the shoulders, flanks, 
and sides, whose use is to corrugate the skin, shake off flies, 
and dislodge other annoying substances. 

The sense of smell is so delicately acute in the horse, that 
perhaps he is not exceeded in this function by any other animal. 
The nose is provided with a very extensive surface for the dis- 
tribution of the olfactory nerve, by the curious foldings of the 
turbinated bones. It is principally by means of this faculty 
that he is enabled to distinguish the qualities of the plants upon 
which he feeds, and to reject such as are of a noxious or poison- 
ous description. "Nature," said Linnaeus, " teaches the brute 



NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. T9 

creation to distinguish, without a preceptor, the useful from the 
hurtful, while man is left to his own inquiries." On putting 
the finger into the nostrils, at the upper and outward parts, 
they pass into blind pouches of considerable dimensions. These 
curious cavities have nothing to do with smelling, because they 
are lined with a reflection of common integument, but they may 
possibly be of use in mechanically distending the external en- 
trance of the nostrils, and thus materially facilitate respiration 
during violent exertion. They are also brought into use when 
the animal neighs ; and the Hungarian soldiery slit them up, to 
preclude the possibility of being prematurely discovered to the 
enemy by the exercise of this habit. It is worthy of remark, 
in this connection, that the preference of Arabs for the mare to 
the horse, for warlike purposes, is attributable to the fact that 
they do not neigh when they scent the vicinity of other horses, 
as stallions invariably do — the Arabs never attacking, save by 
surprise. Those nations which fight by open force have no 
such preference, but mainly use the stallion. On the lower part 
of the nostril, toward the outer edge, may be seen the mouth of 
a small tube, which conveys the tears from the inner canthus, 
or corner of the eye. It opens on the skin just before it joins 
the lining membrane of the nose. This little cavity has often 
been mistaken, by unqualified persons, for an ulcer common in 
glanderous affections, and the poor animal has frequently fallen 
a victim to the error. 

Their eyes are large in proportion to those of some other 
quadrupeds, and the pupilar opening is of an oblate elliptic 
form, with its long axes parallel to the horizon, thus increasing 
the lateral field of vision. Round the edges of the pupil is a 
curious fringe of deep plum-colored eminences, supposed to be 



go 



NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 



serviceable in absorbing the superabundant rays of light which 
may be transmitted to the eye. The horse's sight is excellent, 
and, although not regarded as a nocturnal animal, Jje can dis- 
tinguish objects at night with great facility. There are but few 
horsemen, who have not benefited by this power, when the 
shades of night have fallen round them. 

The ears are comparatively small, but the conch is endowed 
with extensive motion, so as to catch the sound coming from 



EWiof. 




NAMES APPLIED TO THE VARIOUS EXTERNAL PARTS OF THE HORSE. 

any quarter. Their hearing is quick, and although blindness 
is so distinctively prevalent among horses, deafness is exceed- 
ingly uncommon. During sleep, one ear is usually directed 
forward, and the other backward ; when on a march at night, 
in company, it has been noticed "that those in the front direct 
their ears forward, those in the rear backward, and those in the 
centre turn them laterally, or across ; the whole troop seeming 
thus to be actuated by one feeling, which watches the general 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 81 

safety." In contests of speed the ears are generally laid back- 
wards, so as to afford no opposition to the rapid progress of 
the animal. It must be evident, that if the concave surfaces 
of these organs be presented forward, they would gather the 
wind, and slightly impede progression. Another reason as- 
signed for this deflection, is that the animal may avoid the 
inconvenience, if not pain, which the current of air, produced 
by his velocity, would inflict on that delicate organ. 

The different vocal articulations to which the horse gives 
utterance, are collectively termed neighing ; but some variety 
of intonation may be discovered in the expression of its pas- 
sions ; as, for instance, the cry of joy or recognition differs in a 
marked manner from that of desire ; and anger from playfulness. 
The females do not neigh so frequently, nor with so much force 
os the males. Castration is known to have a modulating effect 
upon the voice. It is supposed that neighing is produced by 
the vibration of two small triangular membranes found at the 
extremity of the glottis. In the ass and mule, this structure is 
wanting; but they are provided with a more singular apparatus. 
Hollowed out of the thyroid cartilages is a small concavity, 
over which is stretched a membrane, similar to the parchment 
<m the head of a drum. When air is forced behind this sub- 
stance, a very considerable noise is produced, though from the 
absence of muscularity the vibratioos are without modulation, 
and consequently dissonant. 

The intellectual character of the horse is scarcely excelled by 
that of any other quadruped. His perceptions are remarkably 
clear, and his memory excellent. Attachment to those who 
tend him with kindness, forms a prominent trait in his character. 
The feats which he is often taught to perform, evince a high 
6 



82 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 

intellectual capacity. Travelers in the desert assure us that 
horses possess the faculty of directiDg their course to the nearest 
water, when hard pressed for that necessary article. 

Horses swim with the greatest facility, and the distances they 
have been known to perform in the water exceed our expecta- 
tion. A horse that was wrecked off the coast of South America 
swam seven miles to land, thus saving his life. 

There exist some important differences in the animal 
economy of the equine family and that of other herbivorous 
animals, which, as the inferences from them are of some conse- 
quence, it is necessary briefly to notice. The horse naturally 
requires but little sleep, and even that it often takes standing. 
In a state of nature, when fodder is short, to support itself 
properly it is compelled to graze twenty hours out of the 
twenty-four. Ruminating animals eat with greater rapidity, 
and lie down to chew the cud. The horse eats no faster than 
it digests. Digestion in the former is interrupted ; in the latter, 
continuous. This explains why the horse has no gall-bladder, 
as it requires no reservoir for that necessary fluid ; for, as fast 
as the bile is secreted by the liver it is carried to the intestines 
to perform its important action on the chymous mass. The 
stomach of the horse is also remarkably small and simple, dif- 
fering widely from the capacious and complicated structures 
of the ruminantia ; but the intestines are long, and the ccecum 
capable of containing a large quantity of fluid, of which it is 
considered the receptacle. The mamma of the mare is by no 
means so pendulous and bulky as that of the cow. The horse's 
feet, from their compact, undivided nature, are much less liable 
to injury during fleet exertion than those of the ox. All these 
circumstances tend to establish the individuality of the horse, 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 83 

and are so many proofs of admirable design for the purposes 
to which man has applied him ; for, without these peculiarities, 
he would not be so valuable and superior, as a beast of con- 
tinued and rapid motion, and would consequently occupy a very 
inferior station. 

Linnaeus asserted that the male horse was without the rudi- 
mentary mamma invariably found in the males of other animals ; 
but this naturalist was mistaken, for they may be seen on each 
side of the sheath, and, although of no possible use, still their 
existence preserves the uniformity of nature's operations. 

The horse and zebra possess horny callosities on the inside 
of the fore-legs, above the knees, and on the hocks of the hind- 
legs ; the ass and the quagga have them only on the fore ex- 
tremities. 

In a state of nature, the horse is purely a herbivorous animal, 
but under the restraint which domestication imposes, his habits 
become changed, and grain and dry grasses form the principal 
articles of his diet. Domestication is known to originate many 
diseases totally unknown in a natural state, but it appears to 
have the effect of augmenting the muscular power of the animal 
far beyond its uncultivated state. 

It may be remarked, in addition to what has been previously 
said as to the limit of life allotted to the horse, that there is some 
difficulty in estimating the natural average length of his life, since 
many obstacles oppose an inquiry on a scale of sufficient mag- 
nitude to be satisfactory. The numerous evils entailed on him 
by the arduous labors and the restricted and unnatural habits 
of a domesticated state tend greatly to abbreviate life. From 
these and other reasons, it cannot be much doubted that his age 
is greatly underrated. Horses are most erroneously termed 



84. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 

aged on the obliteration of the mark from the lower incisor 
teeth, which occurs by the completion of the eighth year ; and 
though it is far from being the natural term of age and debility, 
or even of the decline of the vital energies, it too frequently 
happens, that by that time bodily infirmities have been prema- 
turely induced by over-exertion of their powers. Horses at 
twenty years of age, are often met with in cases where the least 
humanity has been bestowed on their management. Eclipse 
died at the age of twenty-five ; Flying Childers, at twenty-six. 
Brom's mare Maggie reached more than twenty-nine years. 
Bucephalus, the celebrated horse of Alexander of Macedon, 
lived till thirty. The natural age is probably between twenty- 
five and thirty. A faint and uncertain guide is found in the 
register of the ages of the most celebrated racing stallions, re- 
collecting, however, that several of them were destroyed on 
becoming useless for the purposes of the turf. The united ages 
of ninety-three of these horses amounted to two thousand and 
five years ; or rather more than twenty-one and a half years to 
each horse. 

As a matter Of civil economy, it is important to judge cor- 
rectly of the age of the horse. This is chiefly accomplished 
by observing the natural changes which occur in his teeth, the 
periods at which they appear, are shed and replaced, and the 
alterations in their form and markings. 

The teeth of most animals offer some criterion by which their 
age can be estimated with more or less accuracy. The teeth 
are nearly the sole indices of the age of the horse, ass, elephant, 
camel, dog, and the polled varieties of the ox and sheep ; while 
in other domesticated animals, as the elk, deer, goat, common 



*■ NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 86- 

ox and sheep, the horns also present legible indications of the 
progress of time. 

Reference to the teeth to ascertain the age of the horse is 
not by any means of recent origin. Xenophon, in his work on 
horsemanship, from which we have already quoted, alludes to 
it as an established custom used in the selection of cavalry for 
the Grecian armies ; he properly advised the rejection of such 
horses as have lost the dental mark. The same facts are sub- 
sequently noticed by Yarro, Columella, Yegetius, and other 
Roman writers. 

The horse, when full-mouthed, possesses forty teeth — twenty 
in each jaw. They are named from their use, position, and. 
character. Those in the front of the mouth, whose office it is 
to gather food when grazing, are termed incisors, or, more pro- 
perly, nippers. They are twelve in number; six above, and 
six below. They do not overlap each other, as is the case in 
man, but meet in a broad tabular surface. From these teeth 
the age of the animal is principally deduced. For the sake of 
description, they are usually ranged in pairs, as they appear ; 
and the first pair is called the central, the second the dividers, 
and the third the corner nippers. The tushes, ov canines, 
come next ; one above, and one below on each side. They are 
of a pointed form, and are convex on the outer sides, and 
slightly concave on the inner surface. They scarcely ever ap- 
pear above the gums in mares, although their rudiments may 
be discovered on dissection, imbedded in the maxillary bones. 
TJiey are consequently regarded as sexual distinctions. It is 
difficult to assign their use ; their position precludes the possi- 
bility of their being used as weapons of offense or defense. 
They may be viewed as a link of uniformity so commonly 



86 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 

traced in the animated world. The grinders, or molars, are 
twenty-four in number. They are teeth of great power. By 
them the food is crushed or ground into small particles, and 
prepared for the digestive action of the stomach. In order to 
fit them for this office, they possess additional interlayers of 
enamel, which prevent their too rapid wear. 

In common with most animals, the horse is provided with 
two sets of teeth ; those appearing first are known as the tem- 
porary, deciduous, or milk teeth, and are succeeded by the 
permanent set. On comparing the different magnitudes of the 
jaw-bones of the colt and the adult horse, the necessity of such 
a change is at once apparent. By it the teeth are adapted to 
the size of the maxillary bones. The teeth, from their peculiar 
character and mode of growth, do not admit of any material 
increase of dimension ; and nature was therefore forced either 
to place the large permanent teeth in small and disproportionate 
jaw-bones, or to adapt the size of the teeth by displacement to 
the growth of the bones that contained them. The latter pro- 
cess is adopted, and constitutes one of those remarkable 
evidences of creative power, with which the living frame is 
replete. 

Three substances enter into the structure of the teeth ; first 
the enamel; secondly, the dental bone, or ivory ; and thirdly, 
a cortical envelope, surrounding the fang. The enamel differs 
but little in chemical constitution from the bony body of the 
teeth ; and that principally results from the absence of animal 
matter in it. It appears closely analogous to the univalve 
porcellaneous shells, and is the hardest and most indestructible 
substance of the body. The dental bone is distinctly tubular 
in structure; these tubuli taking a perpendicular direction, 



NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 87 

being exceedingly small, but capable of absorbing ink by capil- 
lary attraction. No such tubuli have been traced in the enamel. 
The teeth, both incisors and grinders, are being constantly 
worn away at the crown ; but the loss is supplied by the gradual, 
continuous, and equivalent growth from the root. The horse's 
teeth are sometimes, but not frequently, subject to disease. It 
is seldom that any of them are lost from age, as is the case with 
man, and most other animals. 

It has been remarked, that the constitution of horses and 
men may be considered as in an equal degree of perfection 
and capability of exertion, or of debility and decay, according 
as youth or age preponderates. Thus, the first five years of 
a horse may be considered as equivalent to the first twenty in 
man ; or thus, that a horse five years old may be comparatively 
considered as a man of twenty ; a horse of ten years, as a man 
of forty ; a horse of fifteen, as a man of fifty ; a horse of twenty, 
as a man of sixty ; of twenty-five, as a man of seventy ; of 
thirty, as a man of eighty ; of thirty-five, as a man of ninety. 
So far from this comparison being in favor of the horse, it may 
rather be regarded as too little. Horses of thirty-five years 
of age are as common as men of ninety, provided it be taken 
into account that there are twenty human subjects for every 
horse ; and, unquestionably, a horse of forty-five is less rare 
than a man of one hundred and ten. 

To this it may be added, that the early English racers 
appear to have been more addicted to longevity than those 
of modern days, and the American horse generally than the 
English ; probably because, in the former case, the horse was 
not put to hard work until his powers were developed by an 
advance toward maturity. Two and three year old training 



88 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 




was unknown until a recent date ; and, in the latter case, in 
America horses are little used in harness, or for general work, 
until they have attained to five or six years. 

"We will next consider the first appearance and successive 
changes of the teeth, with the marks and 
their descriptions from commencement to 
maturity. 

Seven or eight months before the foal is 

born, the germs or beginnings of the teeth 

are visible in the cavities of the jaws. At 

the time of birth, the first and second 

grinders have appeared, large, compared 

eight days' teeth. w jth the size of the jaw, seemingly filling it. 

In the course of seven or eight days, the two centre nippers 

are seen as here represented. 

In the course of the first month, the third grinder appears, 
above and below; and not long after, and generally before 
six weeks have expired, another incisor above and below 
will be seen on each side of the two first, which have 
now considerably grown, but not at- 
tained their perfect height. This cut 
will then represent the appearance of 
the mouth. 

At two months, the centre nippers 
will have reached their natural level, 
and between the second and third 
month the second pair will have over- 
taken them. They will then begin 
to wear a little, and the outer 
three or four months' teeth, edge, w(iich was at first somewhat 




NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 89 

raised and sharp, is brought to a level with the inner 
edge, and so the month continues until some time between the 
sixth and ninth month, when another nipper begins to appear 
on each side of the first two, making six above and below, and 
completing the colt's mouth ; after which the only observable 
difference, until between the second and third year, is in the 
wear and tear of these teeth. 

These teeth are covered with a polished and exceedingly 
hard enamel ; indeed, it is so hard that it almost bids defiance 
to the action of a file. It spreads over that portion of the 
tooth which appears above the gum, and not only so, but as 
they are to be so much employed in nipping up the grass and 
gathering the animal's food — and in such employment even 
this hard substance must be gradually worn away — a portion 
of it, as it passes over the upper surface of the teeth, is bent 
inward, and sunk into the body of the teeth, and forms a little 
pit in them. The inside and bottom of this pit being black- 
ened by the food, constitute the mark in them, by the gradual 
disappearance of which, in consequence of the wearing down 
of the teeth, we are enabled for several years to judge of the 
age of the animal. 

The colt's nipping teeth are rounded in front, somewhat 
hollow toward the mouth, and presenting a cutting surface, 
with the outer edge rising in a slanting direction above the 
inner edge. This, however, soon begins to wear down, until 
both surfaces are level, and the mark, which was originally 
long and narrow, becomes shorter, wider, and fainter. At 
six months, the four nippers are beginning to wear to a level. 

The annexed cut will convey some idea of the appearance 
of the teeth at twelve months. The four middle teeth are 




TIETH AT TWELVE MONTHS. 



90 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 

almost level, and the corners are becoming so. The mark in 
the two middle teeth is wide and faint, in the next two teeth 

it is longer, darker, and more 
narrow. In the corner teeth it 
is longest, darkest, and most 
narrow. 

The back teeth, or grinders, 
will not guide us far in ascer- 
taining the age of the animal, 
for we cannot easily inspect 
them ; but there are some inter- 
esting particulars connected 
with them. The foal is born with two grinders in each jaw, 
above and below, or they appear within two or three days after 
birth. Before the expiration of the month they are succeeded 
by a third, more backward. The crowns of the grinders are 
entirely covered with enamel on the tops and sides, but attrition 
soon wears it away from the top, and there remains a compound 
surface of alternate layers of crusta petrosa, enamel, and 
ivory, which are employed in grinding down the hardest por- 
tions of the food. Nature has, therefore, made an additional 
provision for their strength and endur- 
ance The annexed cut represents a 
grinder sawed across. The five dark 
spots represent bony matter ; the parts 
covered with lines enamel, and the white 
a grinder sawed across, spaces a strong bony cement uniting the 
other portions of the teeth. 

At the completion of the first year a fourth grinder usually 
comes up, and the yearling has then, or soon afterwards, six 




NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 



91 



nippers and four grinders above and below in each jaw, which, 
with the alteration in the nippers just described, will enable us 
to calculate the age of foal, subject to some variations, arising 
from the period of weaning and the nature of the food. 

At the age of one year and a half, the mark in the central 
nippers will be much shorter and fainter ; that in the two other 
pairs will have undergone an 
evident change, and all the 
nippers will be flat. At two 
years this will be more mani- 
fest. The accompanying cut 
deserves attention, as giving 
an accurate representation of 
the nippers in the lower jaw 
of a two-year-old colt. 

About this period a fifth 
grinder will appear, and now 
likewise commences another process. The first teeth are 
adapted to the size and wants of the young animal. They are 
sufficiently large to occupy and fill the colt's jaws ; but when 
these bones have expanded with the increasing growth of the 
animal, the teeth are separated too far from each other to be 
useful, and another and larger set is required. The second 
teeth then begin to push up from below, and the fangs of the 
first are absorbed, until the former approach the surface of the 
gum, when they drop out. Where the temporary teeth do not 
rise immediately under the milk teeth, but by their sides, the 
latter being pressed sideways are absorbed throughout their 
whole length. They grow narrow, are pushed out of place, 
and cause inconvenience to the gum, and sometimes to the 




TWO TEAKS TEETH. 



"92 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 

cheek. They are then sometimes improperly called wolf's 
teeth, and should be extracted. 

The teeth which first appeared are first renewed, and there- 
fore the front or first grinders are changed at the age of two 
years. During the period between the falling out of the central 
milk teeth, and the coming up of the permanent ones, the colt, 
having a broken mouth, may find some difficulty in grazing. If 
^ he should fall away consider- 

/jB'/, ' xtwv a ^ly in condition, he should 

be fed with mashes and corn, 
or cut feed. The cut annexed 
represents a three-year-old 
mouth. 

The central teeth are 

larger than the others, with 

two grooves in the entire 

llllSllll- fS§ convex surface, and the mark 

three tears. j s long, narrow, deep, and 

black. Not having yet attained their full growth, they are 

lower than the others. The mark in the next two nippers is 

nearly worn out, and it is wearing away in the corner nippers. 

7s it possible to give this mouth to an early two-year-old? 

The ages of all horses used to be reckoned from the first of 

May ; but some are foaled even as early as January, and being 

actually four months over the two years, if they have been w T ell 

nursed and fed, and are strong and large, they may, with the 

inexperienced, have an additional year put upon them. The 

central nippers are punched or drawn out, and the others appear 

three or four months earlier than they otherwise would. In the 

natural process they would only rise by long pressing upon the 




NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 93 

first teeth, and causing their absorption. But, opposition from 
the first set being removed, it is easy to imagine that their pro- 
gress will be more rapid. Three or four months will be gained 
in the appearance of these teeth, and these three or four months 
will enable the breeder to term him a late colt of the preceding 
year. To him, however, who is accustomed to horses, the 
general form of the animal, the little development of the fore- 
hand, the continuance of the mark upon the next pair of nippers, 
its more evident existence in the corner ones, some enlarge- 
ment or irregularity about the gums from the violence used in 
forcing out the teeth, the small growth of the first and fifth 
grinders, and the non-appearance of the sixth grinder, which, 
if it be not through the gum at three years old, is swelling under 
it, and preparing to get through — any or all of these circum- 
stances, carefully attended to, will be a sufficient security against 
deception. 

A horse at three years old ought to have the central per- 
manent nippers growing, the other two pairs wasting, six 
grinders in each jaw, above and below, the first and fifth level, 
the others and the sixth protruding. The sharp edge of new 
incisors, although it could not well be expressed in the cut, will 
be very evident when compared with the old teeth. 

As the permanent nippers wear and continue to grow, a 
narrow portion of the cone-shaped tooth is exposed by the 
attrition, and they look as if they had been compressed, but it 
is not so. Not only will the mark be wearing out, but the 
crowns of the teeth will be sensibly smaller. 

At three years and a half, or between that and four, the next 
pair of nippers will be changed, and the mouth at that time 
cannot be mistaken. The central nippers will have attained 



94 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 



nearly their full growth. A vacuity will be left where the 
second stood, or they will begin to peep above the gum, and 
the corner ones will be diminished in breadth, worn down, and 
the mark becoming small and faint. At this period, likewise, 
the second pair of grinders will be shed. Previously to this 
may be the attempt of the dealer to give to his three-year-old 
an additional year; but the fraud will be detected by an ex- 
amination similar to that already described. 

At four years, the central nippers will be fully developed ; 
the sharp edge somewhat worn off, and the mark shorter, wider, 
and fainter. The next pair will be up, but they will be small, 

with the mark deep and 
extending quite across 
them as in the annexed 
cut. The corner nippers 
will be larger than the in- 
side ones, yet smaller than 
they were, and flat, and the 
mark nearly effaced. The 
sixth grinders will have 
risen to a level with the 
others, and the tushes will 
begin to appear. 
Now, more than at any other time, will the dealer be anxious 
to put an additional year upon the animal, for the difference 
between a four-year-old colt and a five-year-old horse, in 
strength, utility, and value, is very great; but the want of wear 
in the other nippers, the small size of the corner ones, the little 
growth of the tush, the smallness of the second grinder, the low 
forehand, the legginess of the colt, and the thickness and little 




FOUR TEAK9. 



NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HORSE. 



95 



depth of the mouth, will, to a man of common experience 
among horses, at once detect the cheat. 

The tushes are four in number, two in each jaw, situated 
between the nippers and the grinders, much nearer to the 
former than the latter, and nearer in the lower jaw than in the 
upper, but this distance increases in both jaws with the age. 
In shape, the tush somewhat resembles a cone ; it protrudes 
from the gum about half an inch, and is sharp-pointed and curved. 
The appearance of this tush in the horse may vary from four 
years to four years and six months. It can only be accelerated a 
few weeks by cutting the gum over it. At four years and a half, or 
between that and five, the last important change takes place in 
the mouth of the horse. The corner nippers are shed, and the 
permanent ones begin to appear. The central nippers are con- 
siderably worn, and the next pair are commencing to show 
marks of usage. The tush has now protruded, and is generally 
a full half inch in height ; externally, it has a rounded promi- 
nence, with a groove on 



either side, and it is evi- 
dently hollowed within. 
The reader scarcely needs 
to be told that after the 
rising of the corner nip- 
per, the animal changes 
its name. The cob be- 
comes a horse, the filly a 
mare. 
At five years, the 
horse's mouth is almost perfect, as represented in the annexed 
cut. The corner nippers are quite up, with the long, deep 




FIVE TEARS. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 



mark irregular in the inside, and the other nippers bearing evi- 
dent tokens of increased wearing. The tush is much grown ; 
the grooves have almost or quite disappeared, and the outer 
surface is regularly convex. It is still as concave within, and 
with the edge nearly as sharp, as it was six months before. 
The sixth molar is quite up, and the third molar is wanting. 
This last circumstance, if the general appearance of the animal, 
and particularly his forehand, and the wearing of the centre 
nippers, and the growth and shape of the tushes be likewise 
carefully attended to, will prevent deception, if a late four- 
year-old is attempted to be substituted for a five-year-old. 
The nippers may be brought up a few months before their time, 
and the tushes a few weeks, but the grinder is with difficulty 
displaced. The last three grinders and the tushes are never 
shed. 

At six years, as in the 
annexed cut, the mark on 
the central nippers is worn 
out. There will still be 
a difference of color in 
the centre of the tooth. 
The cement filling up the 
hole, made by the dipping 
of the enamel, will pre- 
sent a browner hue than 
the other parts of the 
tooth ; and it will be evi- 
dently surrounded by an edge of enamel, and there will remain 
ever a little depression in the centre, and also a depression 
round the case of enamel ; but the deep hole in the centre of 




SIX YEARS. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 



9T 



the teeth, with the blackened surface which it presents, and 
the elevated edge of enamel, will have disappeared. Persons 
not much accustomed to horses have been puzzled here. They 
expected to find a plain surface of uniform color, and knew not 
what conclusion to draw when there were both discoloration 
and irregularity. 

In the next incisors, the mark is shorter, broader, and fainter* 
and in the corner teeth the edges of the enamel are more regu- 
lar, and the surface is evidently worn. The tush has attained 
its full growth, being nearly or quite an inch long, convex 
outward, concave within, tending to a point, and the extremity 
somewhat curved. The third grinder is fairly up, and all the 
grinders are level. 

The horse may now be said to have a perfect mouth. All 
the teeth are produced, fully grown, and have sustained no 
material injury. During these important changes of the teeth, 
the animal has suffered less than could be supposed possible. 

At seven years, as in the 
accompanying cut, the mark, 
in the way in which it has 
been described, is worn out 
in the four central nippers, 
and is fast wearing away in 
the corner teeth ; the tush is 
also beginning to be altered. 
It is rounded at the point, 
rounded at the edges, still 
round without, and beginning to get round inside. 

At eight years old, the tush is rounder in every way ; the 
jnarl? is gone from al} the bottom nippers, and it may almost 




SEVEN YEARS. 



98 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE, 



be said to be out of the mouth. There is nothing remaining 
in the bottom nippers that can clearly show the age of the 
horse, or justify the most experienced examiner in giving a 
positive opinion. This should be distinctly borne in mind, as 
it is a very common error in the United States, and one especi- 
ally insisted on by dealers having old horses to sell, that the 
age can be positively ascertained even to ten, eleven, or twelve 
years, so that it can be predicated of a horse that he is so old, 
and no older. This is an absolute fallacy. It is easy, from 
many general signs, to see that a horse is above eight years 
old ; but it is impossible to judge certainly how much older. 
The length and angularity of the nippers, the depth of the 
super-orbital cavities, and other points of information, may 
enable a good judge to guess comparatively, but never to speak 
surely. 

Dishonest dealers have been said to resort to a method of 
prolonging the mark on the lower nippers. It is called Bish- 
oping, from the name of the scoundrel who invented it. The 

horse of eight or nine years 



old — whose mouth is repre- 
sented in the accompany- 
ing cut- — as thrown, and 
with an engraver's tool a 
hole is dug in the now al- 
most plain surface of the 
corner teeth, in shape re* 
sembling the mark yet left 
in those of a seven-year* 




EIGHT OK NINE TEARS. 



old horse. The hole is then burned with a heated iron, and 
a permanent black stain is left, The next pair of nippers is 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 99 

sometimes slightly touched. An ignorant man would be very 
easily deceived by this trick ; but the irregular appearance of 
the cavity, the diffusion of the black stain around the tushes, 
the sharpened edges and concave inner surface of which can 
never be given again, the marks on the upper nippers, together 
with the general conformation of the horse, can never deceive 
the careful examiner. 

Horsemen, after the animal is eight years old, are accustomed 
to look to the nippers in the upper jaw, and some conclusion 
has been drawn from the appearances which they present. It 
cannot be doubted that the mark remains in them for some 
years after it has been obliterated in the nippers of the lower 
jaw. 

There are various opinions as to the intervals between the 
disappearance of the mark from the different cutting teeth of 
the upper jaw. Some have averaged it at two years, others at 
one. The latter opinion is more commonly adopted by those 
most conversant, and then the age is thus determined. At 
nine years, the mark will be worn from the middle nippers ; 
from the next pair at ten ; and from all the upper nippers at 
eleven. Daring these periods the tush is likewise undergoing 
a manifest change. It is blunter, shorter, and rounder. In 
what degree this takes place in the different periods, long and 
favorable opportunities can alone enable the horseman to 
decide. 

The alteration in the form of the tushes is frequently uncer- 
tain. It will sometimes be blunt at eight ; and at others re- 
main pointed at eighteen. 

After eleven, and until the horse is very old, the age may 
be guessed at with some degree of confidence, from the shape 



100 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 

of the upper surface or extremity of the nippers. At eight 
they are all oval, the length of the oval running across from 
tooth to tooth ; but as the horse gets older, the teeth diminish 
in size — and this commencing in their width, and not in their 
thickness. They become a little apart from each other, and 
their surfaces become round instead of oval. At nine, the 
centre nippers are evidently so ; at ten, the others begin to have 
their ovals shortened. At eleven, the second pair of nippers 
is quite rounded ; and at thirteen, the corner ones have also 
that appearance. At fourteen, the faces of the central nippers 
become somewhat triangular. At seventeen, they are all so. 
At nineteen, the angles begin to wear off, and the central 
teeth are again oval, but in a reversed direction, viz., from 
outward, inward; and at twenty-one, they all wear this 
form. 

It would, of course, be folly to expect any thing like a 
certainty in an opinion of the exact age of an old horse, as 
drawn from the above indications. It is contended by some, 
though denied by others, that stabled horses have the marks 
sooner worn out than those that are at grass ; and crib-biters 
still sooner. At nine or ten, the bars of the mouth become 
less prominent, and their regular diminution will designate in- 
creasing age. At eleven or twelve, the lower nippers change 
their original upright direction, and project forward horizon- 
tally, becoming of a yellow color. 

The general indications of old age, independent of the 
teeth, are the deepening of the hollows over the eyes ; gray 
hairs, and particularly over the eyes, and about the muzzle ; 
thinness and hanging down of the lips ; sharpness of the 
withers, sinking of the back, lengthening of the quarters ; and 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 101 

the disappearance of windgalls, spavins, and tumors of every 
kind. 

Horses kindly and not prematurely used, sometimes live to 
between thirty-five and forty-five years of age ; and a well 
authenticated account is given of a barge horse that died in 
his sixty-second year. 

Under this head of age, nothing beyond the cut of the com- 
plete aged mouth, with the accompanying description of it, 
would have been here inserted, were it not for the prevalent 
opinion, inculcated by interested dealers in the United States, 
that the age of a horse, after eight or nine years, can be as 
certainly and as exactly predicated by mouth-mark, and his 
exact age guaranteed accordingly, as previously to that 
period. 

Summing up all that need be offered on this particular point, 
we simply say, that if one chooses to buy a horse past mark 
of mouth, he must do so on his own judgment and at his own 
risk ; for to credit any assertions, or to give ear to any horse- 
dealer's opinion on the subject, is sheer folly. 




"*S^ MARE and FOAL 

piEiig#MiiiKSfr 

c^ Relative to Breeding, — a very important 
subject, all will admit — two very common mis- 
takes are made ; the first, that mares are bred 
from only because they are useless for work, 
and consequently have to be turned out to grass 
for the season ; the second, that a mare is put to a handsome 
horse which may chance to strike the fancy of her owner, without 
a moment's consideration on the part of the latter as to how far 
his particular mare is suited to that particular horse. The 
(102) 




BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT. 103 

consequence of the first error is, that the infirmities of the mare 
are perpetuated in her unfortunate offspring, and thus become 
hereditary, to the no small disappointment of the breeder. In 
the second case mentioned, the result is an indescribable 
mongrel, possessing only a combination of bad qualities, without 
a single redeeming trait. 

Now, no principle is better established in breeding than that 
"like will produce like ;' 7 in other words, that the offspring will 
inherit the general or mingled qualities of the parents. So 
true is this, that there is scarcely a disease affecting either of 
the parents that is not inherited by the foal, or, at least, to which 
he does not at times show a predisposition. The consequences 
of bad usage or hard work even will descend to the progeny. 
Though the defeets may not appear in the immediate offspring, 
they often do in the next, or some succeeding generation. 
Some knowledge is therefore indispensable of the parentage 
both of the sire and the dam. 

Both parents should be selected with reference not only to 
their individual points of excellence, but also to the relative 
adaptation which the points of one present to the points of the 
other. Though both may be excellent in their way, one parent 
may have points of excellence which actually counteract or neu- 
tralize those of the other. None but sound parents, therefore, 
should be bred from; accidents, however, are not to be regarded 
as unsoundness ; but if a defect exists in a mare which is in- 
tended for breeding, the breeder should be certain that such 
defeet is a mere accident, and not a natural malformation. 
Both parents should also be as free from moral as from physical 
infirmity ; from faults or vices of temper or disposition. Although 
a defect of one parent may sometimes be counteracted by a pre- 



104 BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT. 

ponderating excellence relative to that defect in the other, great 
care is necessary that both parents do not possess the same de- 
fect. If one would be perfectly certain in breeding, it is better to 
avoid even such mares as have suffered merely from accident ; nor 
should the mare be put to the horse at too early an age, if one 
would avoid the hazard of obtaining an unreliable offspring. 

The best form of a mare from which to breed, for any pur- 
pose, is a short-legged, lengthy animal, with a deep, roomy 
chest and carcass, wide and capacious hips, and a sound 
constitution. "Breed," of course, must be looked for, accord- 
ing to the class of horses to which the mare belongs ; a good, 
animated countenance, an upright, sprightly carriage ; general 
structure of muscle, bone and sinew firm, dense, and compact, 
The head of the brood-mare is an important point to be re- 
garded ; a mare that has a heavy head and a stupid countenance 
cannot breed a good foal, unless to a horse possessed of fire 
almost to madness — for her countenance indicates her disposi- 
tion. The neck should be brought out of the top of the withers, 
and not of the bottom of the shoulders and chest ; the shoulders 
should be well back, the blade-bone lying obliquely from the 
shoulder joint ; the blade should also belong and wide, extend- 
ing nearly to the top of the withers, but attached so closely and 
so well covered with muscle as not to present any undue pro- 
minence ; the back of the shoulder should also be well furnished 
with muscle, appearing to the mounted rider of a wedge shape 
widening towards his knee ; the fore-leg should be perpendicular, 
the toe and the point of the shoulder being in a right line ; the 
foot should be round, even, and of a dark color ; the heels should 
be open, but not low ; the brisket should be deep, especially in 
the case of a riding-horse, as otherwise a crupper will be re- 



/ 



BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT. 105 

quired to keep the saddle in its proper place ; the quarters should 
be long and oval on the top ; the hips cannot be too broad in 
a brood-mare, though in a stallion too wide hips are objection- 
able ; the hocks should be regarded, and the shank-bone and 
sinew, both before and behind, should be well developed, and 
dropped straight below the joint. 

As to the shape of the stallion little satisfactory can be said. 
It must depend upon that of the mare, and the kind of horse 
wished to be bred ; but, if there is one point absolutely essential, 

it is compactness — as much 
goodness and strength 
as possible condensed 
nto a small space. 
Next to compactness, 
the inclination of the 
shouldershould 
be regarded. A 
huge stallion, 
with upright 
the arab sTALLioy jupiter/"~ shoulders, never 

got a capital hunter or hackney; from such nothing but a 
cart or dray horse can be obtained, and that, perhaps, spoiled 
by the opposite form of the mare. If, however, a merely slow 
draught-horse is desired, an upright shoulder is desirable, if not 
absolutely necessary. 

The principal requirements in connection with breeding may 
be concisely summed up as follows : — 

First. There should be mutual adaptation in form and size, 
and indeed in all important characteristics, between the sire and 
the dam. 




106 BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT. 

Second. If the mare be defective in any particular, she should 
not be bred to a stallion having a similar, or even an opposite, 
fault ; but one should rather be chosen perfect in that point. 

Third. Exceedingly small mares should not be bred with 
enormously large horses ; distortions will generally be the result. 
For a mare of sixteen hands, a horse of not less than fifteen 
hands should be selected ; if she be too low or small, the horse 
maybe an inch or two higher, but not of the tall or leggy kind. 

Fourth. As it is frequently the case, that without any known 
cause the blood of a certain kind of horses will not cross well 
with that of another, such instances when ascertained should be 
avoided. 

Fifth. If the mare is of a good kind of horses, but one which 
has degenerated in size from "in-breeding," (that is, from con- 
tinuous breeding into the same family and blood — with their 
own daughters and grand-daughters, in other words — for about 
two generations,) the only remedy is, to breed to the purest 
stallion that can be found, but of a different kind from hers, 
unless some ten or more generations removed. 

Sixth. After breeding for several generations from males and 
females of one kind, it is generally beneficial to change to 
another entirely different; otherwise degeneracy in size will be 
the general result. 

The mare should not be put to horse under three years of 
age. Although some contend that, if lightly worked, she may 
be used for breeding until she is twenty, yet it is very doubtful 
whether breeding from any mare over twelve years old, at the 
very utmost, will prove satisfactory. If a large colt is desired, 
have a large mare ; as her size has generally more to do with 
the matter than that of the stallion. The most favorable time 



BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT. lOt 

for putting the mare to the horse is from March to the begin- 
ning of May ; colts foaled in March are generally found to turn 
out hardier, and to stand better, than those foaled earlier. 

From the time of covering to within a few days of the ex- 
pected period of foaling, the cart-mare may be kept at moderate 
labor not only without injury, but with decided advantage. 
She should then be released from work and kept near home 
under the frequent inspection of some careful person. When 
nearly half the time of pregnancy has elapsed, she should have 
a little better food, being allowed one or two feeds of grain in 
the day. As this is about the time when they are accustomed 
to slink their foals, or when abortion occurs, the owner's eye 
should be frequently upon her. Good feeding and moderate 
exercise are the best preventives of this mischance. As the 
mare that has once slunk her foal is liable to a repetition of 
this accident, she should never be suffered to be with other 
mares between the fourth and fifth months ; for so great is the 
power of sympathy or imagination in the mare that if one 
suffers abortion, others in the same pasture will too often share 
the same fate. Farmers frequently suppose that such mishaps 
originate from some infection ; and many wash and paint and 
tar their stables to prevent an infection that really lies in the 
imagination. 

The period of pregnancy varies from forty-four to fifty-six 
weeks, but it is usually from forty-seven to fifty. If the mare, 
whether of pure or common breed, be cared for as suggested 
above, and be in good health while in foal, little danger will 
attend the act of giving birth to the young. Should there be, 
however, false presentation of the foetus, or any difficulty in pro- 
ducing it, recourse should be had to a well-informed veterinary 



108 BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT. 

surgeon, rather than to run the risk of injuring the mare by 
violent attempts to relieve her. 

After the mare has foaled, she should be turned into some 
well-sheltered pasture, with a shed or hovel into which she may- 
run when she pleases. If she has foaled early and the grass 
is scanty, she should have a feed or two of oats or Indian corn 
daily ; if the corn is given in a trough upon the ground, the foal 
will partake of it with her. Nothing is gained at this time by 
starving the mare and stinting the foal. When the new grass 
is plentiful, the quantity of grain may be gradually diminished. 
The proper care of young foals will repay a hundred-fold ; this 
being, indeed, the most critical period of the animal's life, when 
attention or neglect produces the most noticeable and permanent 
results. 

If convenient, the foal may be permitted to run for twelve 
months at the foot of the mare ; but when mares are kept ex- 
pressly for breeding purposes, many circumstances render this 
objectionable. Within about a month or six weeks from foal- 
ing the mare will be again in heat, and should be put to the 
horse ; at the same time, also, if she is used for agricultural 
purposes, she may resume light work. At first, the foal should 
be shut up in the stable during working hours ; but, as it ac- 
quires sufficient strength, it is better to allow it to follow its 
dam. The work will contribute to the health of the mother, 
and increase her flow of milk ; and the foal, by accompanying 
her, will suck more frequently, thrive better, become tamed, 
and gradually familiarized with the objects among which it is 
afterward to live. While the mare is thus worked, she and the 
foal should be well fed ; and two feeds of corn, at least, should 
be added to the green food which they get when turned out 
after their work, and at night. 



BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT. 109 

In five or six months, according to the growth of the foal, 
it may be weaned. For this purpose, it should either be 
housed, or turned into some pasture at a distance from the 
dam. The mare should be put to harder work and drier food. 
If her milk is troublesome, or she pines after her foal, a few 
purgatives (one or two urine-balls, or a physic ball) will be 
found useful. The foal should be fed well and liberally every 
morning and evening, bruised oats and bran being about the 
best kind of food which can be given. The money so laid out 
upon the liberal nourishment of the colt, is well expended ; 
yet, while he is well fed, he should not be rendered delicate by 
excess of care. Toward the end of summer the foal may be 
turned out to general pasture without fear of his again seeking 
his dam. 

Should the foal be a male, and emasculation be desirable, it 
is better to perform the operation at the time of weaning, that 
the one trouble shall serve for both occasions. If, however, 
weaning take place in June or July, when the fly abounds, the 
operation should not be performed, as this insect by its attacks 
will cause restlessness and consequent inflammation, and thus 
retard recovery. Early spring, or an advanced period of 
autumn, is the best time. This operation should in no instance 
be performed by any other than a competent veterinary sur- 
geon. One thing in this connection should be mentioned ; 
when a horse is suffered to attain two-thirds of his growth 
before emasculation, an animal is obtained of form, power, and 
value far superior to that which has been operated upon when 
a foal. This much is deserving of remembrance ; though we 
cannot omit heartily condemning the practice of emasculation 
at all. 



110 



BREAKING, 




BREAKING. 



BREAKING. 

No greater mistake can be made than the postponement 

of this part of the rearing of a horse. It should always 

commence as soon as the colt is weaned, or immediately after 

the effects of the emasculation have disappeared ; it should 

in this manner be commenced 
p and carried on gradually, with 
gentleness and kind- 
ness. The foal should 
be daily handled, par- 
tially dressed, accus- 
tomed to the halter 
when led about, and 
even tied up occasion- 
ally for an hour or so. 
The tractability, good temper, and value of the horse depend 
much more upon this than most breeders consider. The person 
who feeds the colt should have the entire management of him 
at this period, and he should be a trustworthy person, possessed 
of a quiet, uniform temper and a kindly disposition. Many 
a horse is spoiled and rendered permanently untamable by 
early harshness or improper treatment ; and many a horse that 
otherwise would have proved a vicious, unmanageable brute, 
has been brought to be a docile, gentle, and affectionate ser- 
vant by the judicious treatment of those to whose charge his 
management at this particular period was fortunately in- 
trusted. 

Such a treatment is sufficient for the first year; after the 
second winter, the operation of training should commence in 



BREAKING. Ill 

good earnest. The colt should be bitted, a bit being selected 
which will not hurt his mouth, and much smaller than those ia 
common use. The work of bitting may perhaps occupy three 
or four days ; the colt being suffered to amuse himself with the 
bit, to play, and to champ it for an hour or so during a few 
successive days. When he has become accustomed to the bit, 
he may have two long ropes attached to it, slightly fastened 
to his sides by a loose girth over the back, and his feeder may 
thus drive him, as it were, around a field, pulling upon him 
as he proceeds. This will serve as a first lesson in drawing. 
If he is intended for a saddle-horse, a filled bag may be 
thrown across his back and there secured, and, after he has 
become used to this, a crotch may be fastened upon his back, 
its lower extremities grasping his sides, and thus preparing 
him for the legs of his rider. 

Portions of the harness may next be put upon him, reserving 
the blind winkers for the last ; and a few days afterward he 
may go into the team. It is better that he should be one of 
three horses, having one before him, and the shaft-horse behind 
him. There should at first be the mere empty wagon ; and the 
draught is best begun over the grass, where the colt will not 
be frightened by the noise of the wheels. Nothing should be 
done to him, except giving him an occasional pat or a kind 
word. The other horses will keep him moving and in his place ; 
and after a short time, sometimes even during the first clay, he 
will begin to pull with the rest. The load may then be gradu- 
ally increased. 

If the horse is desired for purposes of riding as well as for 
exclusively agricultural uses, his first lesson may be given when 
he is in the team ; his feeder, if possible, being the first one put 



112 BREAKING. 

upon him. He will be too much confined by the harness and 
by the other horses, to make much resistance ; and, in the 
greater nnmber of instances, will quietly and at once submit 
Every thing, however, should proceed gradually and by suc- 
cessive steps, and, above all, no whip or harsh language should, 
under any circumstances, be allowed to be used. Although mild- 
ness is absolutely essential, it is none the less necessary that 
the colt should be taught implicit obedience to the will of his 
master. To accomplish this, neither whip, nor spur, nor loud 
shouting, nor hallooing is necessary ; the successful horsebreaker 
is required to possess but the three grand requisites of firmness, 
steadiness, and patience. 

When the colt begins to understand his business somewhat, 
the most difficult part of his work, backing, may be taught him ; 
first, to back well without anything behind him, then with a 
light curb, and afterwards with some more heavy load — the 
greatest possible care being always taken that his mouth be not 
seriously hurt. If the first lesson causes much soreness of the 
gums, he will not readily submit to the second. If he has been 
previously rendered tractable by kind usage, time and patience 
will accomplish every thing that is desired. Some persons are 
in the habit of blinding the colt when teaching him to back. 
This can only be necessary with a restive and obstinate one, and 
even then should be used only as a last resort. 

In the whole process of breaking it should constantly be 
borne in mind, that scarcely any horses are naturally vicious. 
Cruel usage alone first provokes resistance. If that resistance 
is followed by greater severity, the stubbornness of the colt in- 
creases in proportion ; open warfare ensues, in which the man 
seldom gains the advantage, and the horse is frequently ren- 



BREAKING. 113 

dered utterly unfit for service. Correction may, indeed, be 
necessary for the purpose of enforcing implicit obedience, after 
the training has proceeded to a certain extent ; but the early 
lessons should be imparted with kindness alone. Young colts 
are sometimes very perverse ; and many days will occasionally 
pass, before they will suffer the bridle to be put on, or the saddle 
to be worn. It must not, however, be forgotten, that a single act 
of harshness will indefinitely increase this length of time ; but 
that patience and kindness will always prevail. On some occa- 
sion, when the colt is in a better humor than usual, the bridle 
may be put on, or the saddle be worn ; and, if this compliance, 
on his part is accompanied by kindness and soothing on the 
part of the breaker, and no inconvenience or pain be suffered 
by the animal, all resistance will be ended. 

The same principles will apply to the breaking-in of the horse 
for the road. The handling and some portion of instruction 
should commence from the time of weaning ; for upon this the 
future tractibility of the horse in a great measure depends. At 
two years and a half, or three years, the regular process of 
breaking-in should commence. If it is put off until the animal 
is four years old, his strength and obstinacy will be more diffi- 
cult to overcome. The plan usually adopted by the breaker 
cannot, perhaps, be much improved ; except that there should 
be much more kindness and patience, and far less harshness and 
cruelty, than those persons are accustomed to exhibit, and a 
great deal more attention to the form and natural action of the 
horse. A headstall is put on the colt, and a cavesson (or ap- 
paratus to confine and pinch the nose,) affixed to it with long 
reins. He is first accustomed to the rein, then led around a 
ring on soft ground, and at length mounted and taught his 
8 



114 BREAKING. 

paces. Next to preserving the temper and docility of the horse, 
there is nothing of so much importance, as to teach him every 
pace and every part of his duty distinctly and thoroughly. 
Each should constitute a separate and sometimes long-continued 
lesson, taught by a man who will never allow his passion to 
overmaster his discretion. 

After the cavesson has been attached to the headstall, and 
the long reins put on, the colt should be quietly led about by 
the breaker — a steady boy following behind, to keep him moving 
by occasional threatening with the whip, but never by an actual 
blow. When the animal follows readily and quietly, he may be 
taken to the ring and walked around, right and left, in a very 
small circle. Care should be taken to teach him this pace 
thoroughly, never allowing him to break into a trot. The boy 
with his whip may here again be necessary, but an actual blow 
should never be inflicted. 

Becoming tolerably perfect in the walk, he should be quick- 
ened to a trot, and kept steadily at it ; the whip and the boy, 
if needful, urging him on, and the cavesson restraining him. 
These lessons should be short, the pace being kept perfect and 
distinct in each, and docility and improvement rewarded with 
frequent caresses, and handfuls of corn. The length of the 
rein may now be gradually increased, and the pace quickened, and 
the time extended, until the animal becomes tractable in these 
his first lessons; toward the conclusion of which, crupper straps, 
or something similar, may be attached to the clothing. These, 
playing about the sides and flanks, accustom him to the flapping 
of the coat of the rider. The annoyance which they occasion 
will pass over in a day or two ; for when the animal learns by 
experience that no harm comes from them, he will cease to re-- 
gard them. 



BREAKING. ' 115 

Next comes the bitting. The bits should be large and 
smooth, and the reins buckled to a ring on each side of the 
pad. There are many curious and expensive machines for this 
purpose, but the simple rein will be quite sufficient. It should 
at first be slack, and then very gradually tightened. This pre- 
pares for the more perfect manner in which the head will after- 
ward be got in its proper position, when the colt is accustomed 
to the saddle. Occasionally the breaker should stand in front 
of the colt, and take hold of each side-rein near to the mouth, 
and press upon it, and thus begin to teach him to stop and to 
back on the pressure of the rein, rewarding every act of do- 
cility, and not being too eager to punish occasional careless- 
ness or waywardness. 

The colt may now be taken into the road or street, that he 
may become gradually accustomed to the objects among which 
his services will be required. Here, from fear or playfulness, a 
considerable degree of starting and shying may be exhibited, 
of which as little notice as possible should be taken. The same 
or a similar object should be soon passed again, but at a greater 
distance. If the colt still shies, let the distance be still further 
increased, until he takes no notice of the object. Then he may 
be gradually brought nearer to it ; and this may usually be ac- 
complished without the slightest difficulty ; whereas, had there 
been an attempt to force him close to it in the first instance, 
the remembrance of the contest would have been associated 
with every appearance of the object, and the habit of shying' 
would have been established. 

Hitherto, with a cool and patient breaker, the whip may have 
been shown, but will scarcely have been used ; the colt should 
now, however, be accustomed to this necessary instrument of 



116 BREAKING. 

authority. Let the breaker walk by the side of the animal, 
throw his right arm over his back, holding the reins in his left, 
occasionally quickening his pace, and at the moment of doing 
this tapping the horse with the whip in his right hand, and at 
first very gently. The tap of the whip and the quickening of 
the pace will soon become associated in the animal's mind. If 
necessary, these reminders may gradually fall a little heavier, 
and the feeling of pain be the monitor of the necessity of in- 
creased exertion. The lessons of reining in and stopping, and 
backing on the pressure of the bit, may continue to be practised 
at the same time. 

He may next be taught to bear the saddle. Some little 
caution will be necessary in first putting it on. The breaker 
should stand at the head of the colt, patting him and engaging 
his attention, while one assistant, on the off-side, gently places 
the saddle on the back of the animal ; another on the nearest 
side slowly tightening the girths. If he submits quietly to this, 
as he generally will when the previous process of breaking-in 
has been properly conducted, the operation of mounting may 
be attempted on the following, or on the third day. The 
breaker will need two assistants in order to accomplish this. 
He will remain at the head of the colt, patting and making 
much of him. The rider will put his foot into the stirrup, and 
bear a little weight upon it, while the man on the opposite side 
presses equally on the other stirrup-leather ; and according to 
the docility of the animal, he will gradually increase the weight, 
until he balances himself on the stirrup. If the colt is uneasy 
or fretful, he should be spoken kindly to and patted, or a 
mouthful of grain be given to him; but if he offers serious re- 
sistance, the lessons must terminate for that day. He may 
possibly be in a better humor on the morrow. 



BREAKING. 



m 



When the rider has balanced himself for a minute Or two, he 
may gently throw his leg over, and quickly seat himself in the 
saddle. The breaker should then lead the animal around the 
ring, the rider meanwhile sitting perfectly still. After a few 
minutes he should take the reins, and handle them as gently as 
possible, guiding the horse by the pressure of them ; patting 
him frequently, and especially when he thinks of dismounting ; 
and, after having dismounted, offering him a little grain, or 
green feed. The use of the rein in checking him, and of the 
pressure of the leg and the touch of the heel in quickening his 
pace, will soon be taught, and his education will be nearly com- 
pleted. 

The horse having thus far submitted himself to the breaker, 
these pattings and awards must be gradually diminished, and 
implicit obedience mildly but firmly enforced. Severity will 
not often be necessary, in the great majority of cases it being 

altogether 
uncalled for; 
!| but should the 
j animal, in a 
moment of 
waywardness, 
-^dispute the 
command of 
the breaker, 
he must at 
once be taught that he is the slave of man, and 
that we have the power, by other means than those of kindness, 
to bend him to our will. The education of the horse, in short, 
should be that of the child. Pleasure is, as much as possible, 




THE AGRICULTURIST'S METHOD. 



118 CASTRATION. 

associated with the early lessons ; but firmness, or, if need be, 
coercion, must establish the habit of obedience. Tyranny and 
cruelty will, more speedily even in the horse than in the child, 
provoke the wish to disobey ; and, on every practicable occasion, 
the resistance to command. The restive and vicious horse is, 
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, made so by ill-usage, and 
not by nature. None but those who will take the trouble to 
make the experiment, are aware how absolute a command the 
due admixture of firmness and kindness will soon give us over 
any horse. 



CASTKATIOET. 

The period at which this operation may be best performed 
depends, as has been previously remarked, much on the breed 
and form of the colt, and the purpose for which he is destined. 
For the common agricultural horse, the age of four or five 
months will be the most proper time, or, at least before he is 
weaned. Few horses are lost when cut at that age ; though 
care should be taken that the weather is not too bad, nor the 
flies too numerous. 

If the horse is designed either for the carriage or for heavy 
draught, he should not be castrated until he is at least a year 
old ; and, even then, the colt should be carefully examined. If 
he is thin and spare about the neck and shoulders, and low in 
the withers, he will materially improve by remaining uncut 
another six months ; but if his fore quarters are fairly developed 
at twelve months, the operation should not be delayed, lest he 
grow gross and heavy before, and, perhaps, has begun too de- 
cidedly to have a will of his own. No specific age, therefore, 
can be fixed ; but the operation should be performed rather late 



CASTRATION. 119 

in the spring, or early in the autumn, when the air is temperate 
and particularly when the weather is dry. 

No preparation is necessary for the sucking colt, but it 
may be prudent to physic one of more advanced age. In 
the majority of cases, no after treatment will be necessary, ex- 
cept that the animal should be sheltered from intense heat, and 
more particularly from the wet. In temperate weather he 
will do much better running in the field than nursed in a close 
and hot stable. The moderate exercise which he will necessa- 
rily take in grazing, will be preferable to entire inaction. 

The old method of opening the scrotum, or testicle bag, on 
each side, and cutting off the testicles, preventing bleeding by 
a temporary compression of the vessel, while they are seared 
with a hot iron, must not, perhaps, be abandoned ; but there is 
no necessity for that extra pain, when the spermatic cord (the 
blood-vessels and the nerve,) is compressed between two pieces 
of wood as tightly as in a vice, and there left until the following 
day, when it may be removed with a knife. 

The practice of some farmers of cording, or twitching their 
colts at an early period exposes the animal to much unneces- 
sary pain, and is attended with no slight danger. 

Another method of castration is by torsion. An incision is 
made into the scrotum, and the vas deferens is exposed and 
divided. The artery is then seized by a pair of forcepis con- 
trived for the purpose, and twisted six or seven times round. 
It retracts without untwisting the coils, and bleeding ceases. 
The testicle is removed, and there is no sloughing or danger. 
The most painful part of the operation — the operation of the 
firing-iron, or the claws — is avoided, and the wound readily 
heals. It is to be remarked, in this connection, that the use 



120 DOCKING. 

of chloroform has been found very beneficial in performing the 
operation in the old way, both in removing all pain, and also 
preventing that severe struggling which often takes place, and 
which has sometimes been followed with very dangerous con- 
sequences. With the assistance of this agent, the operation 
has been safely performed in seven minutes, without any pain 
to the animal. 



DOCKING. 

This is an operation, whose only sanction is to be found in 
the requirements of a senseless fashion. " The convenience of 
the rider,," which is sometimes urged in its favor, is the veriest 
nonsense afloat. In truth, the operation is one of the most 
useless which the brain of man, fertile in romance and expedi- 
ents as it is, ever devised ; since, instead of adding to the beauty 
of the animal, as some assert, it but adds deformity. Not many 
years back, this attempted improvement upon nature became a 
perfect mania. In England, however, this cruel practice has 
been almost entirely discarded ; and it is to be hoped that the 
operation in the United States also will speedily be frowned 
down. 

The operation, as now performed by veterinary surgeons, was 
introduced some years ago by the American Veterinary Asso- 
ciation of Philadelphia. It consists in passing a narrow-bladed 
knife (a pricking knife will answer,) between the coccygeal bones 
at the desired point, from above downwards, cutting outwards 
and backwards on each side so as to form two flaps, which are 
carefully brought together over the end of the tail and secured 
by the interrupted suture ; thus giving protection to the stump 
of the tail, and making a much neater finish than by any other 



DOCKING. 121 

method which could be adopted. No styptic whatever is re- 
quired, aud there need be no fear of hemorrhage, as the union 
generally takes place by what surgeons call first intention. If, 
however, the flaps do not fit nicely, healing will not take place 
without suppuration. This fact should be borne in mind in 
performing the operation, as much time in healing may thus be 
saved. 

By the old method that joint is searched for, which is nearest 
to the desired length of tail. The hair is then turned up, and 
tied round with tape for an inch or two above this joint, and 
that lying immediately upon the joint is cut off. The horse is 
fettered with the side-line, and then the veterinary surgeon with 
his docking-machine, or the farmer with his carving-knife and 
mallet, cuts through the tail at one stroke. 

Some farmers dock their colts a few days after they are 
dropped. This is a commendable custom on the score of hu- 
manity. No colt was ever lost by it ; the growth of the hair, 
and the beauty of the tail not being at all impaired. 



NICKING. 

This barbarous operation was once sanctioned by fashion, 
and the breeder and the dealer are even now sometimes tempted 
to inflict the torture of it in order to obtain a ready sale for 
their colts. It is not, practiced to the extent that it used to 
be, nor is it attended by so many circumstances of cruelty. 

The operation is thus performed. The side-line is put on 
the horse, or some persons cteem it more prudent to cast him, 
and that precaution may be recommended. The hair at the 
end of the tail is securely tied together, for the purpose of 
afterward attaching a weight to it. The operator then grasps 



122 NICKING. 

the tail in his hand, and, lifting it up, feels for the centre of 
one of the bones — the prominences at the extremities guiding 
him — from two to four inches from the root of the tail, accord- 
ing to the size of the horse. He then with a sharp knife di- 
vides the muscles deeply from the edge of the tail on one side 
to the centre, and, continuing the incision across the bone of 
the tail, he makes it as deep on the other side. One continued 
incision, steadily yet rapidly made, will accomplish all this. 
If it is a blood-horse that is operated on, this will be sufficient. 
For a hunter, two incisions are usually made, the second being 
about two inches below the first, and likewise as nearly as 
possible in the centre of one of the bones. 

On a hackney, a third incision is made; for fashion has 
decided that his tail shall be still more elevated and curved. 
Two incisions only are made in the tail of a mare, and the 
second not very deep. 

When the second incision is made, some fibres of the mus- 
cles between the first and second will project into the wound, 
and must be removed by a pair of curved scissors. The same 
must be done with the projecting portions from between the 
second and third incisions. The wound should then be care- 
fully examined, in order to ascertain that the muscles have 
been equally divided on each side, otherwise the tail will be 
carried awry. This being done, pieces of tow must be intro- 
duced deeply into each incision, and confined, but not too 
tightly, by a bandage. A very profuse bleeding only will 
justify any tightness of bandage, and the ill consequences that 
have resulted from nicking are mainly attributable to the un- 
necessary force that is used in confining these pledgets of 
tow. Even if the bleeding, immediately after the operation, 



NICKING. 



123 



should have been very great, the roller must be loosened in two 
or three hours, otherwise swelling and inflammation, and even 
death, may possibly ensue. Twenty -four hours after the ope- 
ration, the bandage must be quite removed ; and then all that 
is necessary, so far as the healing of the incisions is concerned, 
is to keep them clean. 

The wounds must remain open ; and this can only be accom- 
plished by forci- 
bly keeping the 
tail curved back 
during two or 
three weeks. For 
this purpose, a 
cord, one or two 
feet in length, is 
affixed to the end 
of the hair, which 
terminates in an- 




THE USUAL METHOD. 



other divided cord, each division going over a pulley on each 
side of the back of the stall. A weight is hung at each ex- 
tremity, sufficient to keep the incisions properly open, and 
regulated by the degree in which this is wished to be accom- 
plished. The animal will thus be retained in an uneasy posi- 
tion, although, after the first two or three days, probably not 
of acute pain. It is barbarous to increase this uneasiness or 
pain by affixing too great a weight to the cords ; for it should 
be remembered that the proper elevated curve is given to the 
tail, not by the weight's keeping it in a certain position for a 
considerable time, but by the depth of the first incisions, and 
the degree in which the wounds are kept open. 



124 



NICKING. 



The dock should not, for the first three or four days, be 
brought higher than the back. Dangerous irritation and in- 
flammation would probably otherwise be produced. It may, 
after that, be gradually raised to an elevation of forty-five 
degrees. The horse should be taken out of the pulleys, and 
gently exercised once or twice every day; but the pulleys 
cannot finally be dispensed with until a fortnight after the 
wounds have healed, because the process of contraction, or the 
approach of the divided parts, goes on for some time after the 
skin is perfect over the incisions, and the tail would thus sink 
below the desired elevation. The French method is simpler 
and less barbarous than ours, allowing 
the horse to lie down or move about at 4 
his pleasure. 
Where this ope- 
ration is to be 
performed, it 
might be adopted 
with advantage 
as shown in the 
engraving an- 
nexed. 

If the tail has the french method. 

not been unnecessarily extended by enormous weights, no bad 
consequences will usually follow ; but if considerable inflamma- 
tion should ensue, the tail must be taken from the pulley, and 
carefully fomented with simple warm water, and a dose -of 
physic given Locked-jaw has, in some rare instances, fol- 
lowed, under which tne horse generally perishes. The best. 
means of cure in the early state of this disease, is to amputate 




THE STABLE. 125 

the tail at the joint above the highest incision. In order to 
prevent the hair from coming off, it should be unplaited and 
combed out every fourth or fifth day. 



THE STABLE. 

The most desirable thing in a stable is ventilation. A horse 
requires air equally with his master ; and as the latter requires 
a chimney to his sleeping apartment, so does the former. This 
may be a mere outlet through the ceiling, or it may be formed 
as a dome or cupola. It should not, of course, be open at the 
top, or rain will get in, but roofed over, and have an opening 
at the sides. Besides this, there should be openings in the 
wall, near the ground, but not in the stalls. This will produce 
a thorough air, and may be so placed as not to expose the 
horses to the draught. 

The stable should not be less than twelve feet high, from floor 
to ceiling, and the floor should be well paved, slope slightly back- 
ward, and along the back of the stalls should run a gutter, about 
a foot wide and an inch or two deep. No stable should be less 
than eighteen feet deep, and each stall should be at least six 
feet clear ; but if eight feet can be allowed, so much the better. 
Although some horses will agree when kept together in one 
stall, it is far preferable to allow each a stall to himself. The 
manger should be about sixteen inches deep, the same from front 
to back, more narrow at bottom than at top, and two feet in 
length. The rack is best when closed in front, the back part 
being an inclined plane of wood sloping gradually toward the 
front, and terminating about two feet down. This kind of 
rack effects a considerable saving in hay; for the reader 
scarcely needs to be reminded that in the common rack much 



126 



THE STABLE. 



of the hay given is dragged down and trampled in the litter. 
It also prevents the hay-seed from falling into the horse's eyes ; 

for the rack is on a 
Up level with the man- 
ger, and about three 
feet from the ground. 
Another advantage 
ained by this rack 
is the facility with 
which it can be 
filled, thus obvi- 
ating all necessity 
for a loft over the 
stable, and, con- 
sequently, admit- 
ting of a greater 
height of ceiling 
above the horses, as well as of a superior ventilation. 

The windows and the doors should be at opposite ends, as 
ventilation is thereby promoted ; the doors should be divided 
transversely, at the height of about four feet from the ground. 
The upper portion may thus be occasionally opened. White- 
wash is a bad dressing for the interior of the stable, as it causes 
too great a glare of light ; paint of a leaden color is best, and 
it can be washed from time to time with soap and water. 
There should be a bin, properly divided into partitions for 
oats, beans, and the like ; and this is better at the back of the 
stable. 

A few buckets of water dashed over the floor of the stable 
while the horses are at work, will keep all sweet. The litter 




CtTSTOMAKY FORM OP STALLS. 



AIR. 127 

should also be turned out to dry, and a little fresh straw spread 
for the horses to stale on. A shed placed beside the stable is 
a great advantage, on two accounts — it admits of the litter 
being dried, and the horse dressed there in wet and stormy 
weather. 

A little powdered gypsum, strown upon the stable floor, will 
also act by absorbing the ammoniacal gas, and thus removing 
its foul smell — a frequent predisposing cause of ophthalmia. 
If the ammonia, however, accumulates in any considerable 
quantity, the speediest and most efficacious remedy as a disin* 
fectant is muriatic acid. 



AIB. 

The importance of thorough ventilation has been adverted to 
under the preceding head, but a few words additional seem 
necessary. 

A hot stable has in the minds of many been long connected 
with a glossy coat for the horse. The latter, it is thought, 
cannot be obtained without the former. To this it may be re- 
plied that in winter a thin, glossy coat is not desirable. Nature 
gives to every animal a warmer clothing when the cold weather 
approaches. The horse — the agricultural horse, especially — 
acquires a thicker and a lengthened coat, in order to defend 
him from the surrounding cold. Man puts on additional and 
a warmer covering, and his comfort is increased and his health 
preserved by it. He who knows anything of the farmer's horse, 
or cares about his enjoyment, will not object to a coat a little 
longer, and a little roughened when the wintry wind blows 
bleak. The coat, however, does not need to be so long as to 



128 AIR. 

be unsightly ; and warm clothing, even in a cool stable, will, 
with plenty of careful and faithful grooming, keep the hair suf- 
ficiently smooth and glossy to satisfy the most fastidious. The 
over-heated air of a close stable dispenses with the necessity of 
this grooming, and therefore the idle attendant unscrupulously 
sacrifices the health and safety of the horse. 

If the stable is close, the air will not only be hot, but foul. 
■ The breathing of every animal contaminates it ; and when, in the 
course of the night, with every aperture stopped, it passes again 
and again through the lungs, the blood cannot undergo its proper 
and healthy change ; digestion will not be so perfectly performed, 
and all the functions of life are injured. Let the owner of a 
valuable horse think of his passing twenty or twenty-two out of 
the twenty-four hours in this debilitating atmosphere. Nature 
does wonders in enabling every animal to accommodate itself 
to the situation in which it is placed, and the horse that lives 
in the stable-oven suffers less from it than would scarcely be 
deemed possible ; but he does not, and cannot, possess the 
power and hardihood which he would acquire under other cir- 
cumstances. 

The air of the improperly closed and heated stable is still 
further contaminated by the urine and dung, which rapidly fer- 
ment there, and give out stimulating and unwholesome odors. 
When one first enters an ill-managed stable, and especially early 
in the morning, he is annoyed, not only by the heat of the con- 
fined air, but by a pungent smell, resembling hartshorn ; what sur- 
prise, then, need be excited at the inflammation of the eyes, and 
the chronic cough, and the disease of the lungs, by which the 
animal, which has been all night shut up in this vitiated atmos- 
phere, is often attacked ; or if glanders and farcy should occa- 



AIR. 129 

sionally break out in such stables ? Chemical experiments have 
demonstrated that the urine of the horse contains in it an ex- 
ceedingly large quantity of hartshorn ; and not only so, but 
that, influenced by the heat of a crowded stable, and possibly 
by other decompositions which are going on at the same time, 
this ammoniacal vapor begins to be rapidly given out almost 
immediately after the urine is voided. 

When disease begins to appear among the inhabitants of these 
ill-ventilated places, it is not wonderful that it should rapidly 
spread among them, and that the plague-spot should be, as it 
were, placed on the door of such a stable. When distemper 
appears in spring or autumn, it is in very many cases to be 
traced to such a pest-house. It is peculiarly fatal there. The 
horses belonging to a small establishment, and rationally 
treated, have it comparatively seldom, or, when they do, but 
lightly ; but among the inmates of a crowded stable it is sure 
to display itself, and there it is most deadly. The experience 
of every veterinary surgeon, and of every large proprietor of 
horses, will corroborate this statement. 

Every stable, then, should possess within itself a certain de- 
gree of ventilation. The cost of this would be trifling, and its 
saving in the preservation of valuable animals may be immense. 
The apertures need not be large, and the whole, as before said, 
may be so contrived that no direct current of air shall fall on 
the horse. 

A gentleman's stable should never be without a thermometer. 
The temperature should seldom exceed seventy degrees in the 
summer, or sink below forty or fifty degrees in the winter. 



130 LITTER. 

LITTEB. 

Having spoken of the vapor of hartshorn, which is so rapidly 
and plentifully given out from the urine of a horse in a heated 
stable, the subject of litter comes naturally next in order. The 
first caution is, frequently to remove it. The early extrication 
of gas shows the rapid putrefaction of the urine ; the conse- 
quence of which will be the rapid putrefaction of the litter which 
is moistened by it. Every thing hastening to decomposition 
should be carefully removed where life and health are to be pre- 
served. The litter which has been much wet or at all softened 
by the urine, and is beginning to decay, should be swept away 
every morning ; the greater part of the remainder may then be 
piled under the manger ; a little being left to prevent the pain- 
ful and injurious pressure of the feet on the hard pavement 
during the day. The soiled and soaked portion of that which 
was left should be removed at night. In the better kind of 
stables, however, the stalls should be completely emptied every 
morning. 

No heap of fermenting dung should be suffered to remain 
during the day in the corner or in any part of the stable. 
With regard to this, the directions for removal should be per- 
emptory. 

The stable should be so contrived that the urine may quickly 
run off, and the offensive and injurious vapor from the decom- 
posing fluid, and the litter will thus be materially lessened ; but 
if this is effected by means of gutters and a descending floor, 
the descent must be barely sufficient to cause the fluid to escape, 
as, if the toes are kept higher than the heels, it will lead to 
lameness, and is also a frequent cause of contraction of the foot. 



LIGHT. 131 

Stalls of this kind certainly do best for mares ; but for horses 
those are preferable, which have a grating in the centre, and a 
slight inclination in the floor on every side towards the middle. 
A short branch may communicate with a larger drain, by means 
of which the urine may be carried off to a reservoir outside the 
stable. Traps are now contrived, and may be procured at little 
expense, by means of which neither any offensive smell nor cur- 
rent of air can pass through the grating. 

In stables with paved floors particularly, humanity and 
interest, as well as the appearance of the stable, should induce 
the proprietor of the horse to place a moderate quantity of litter 
under him during the day. 



LIGHT. 

This neglected branch of stable-management is of far more 
consequence than is generally imagined. The farmer's stable 
is frequently destitute of any glazed window, and has only a 
shutter, which is raised in warm weather, and closed when the 
weather becomes cold. When the horse is in the stable only 
during a few hours in the day, this is not of so much conse- 
quence, nor of so much, probably, with regard to horses of slow 
work ; but to carriage-horses and roadsters, so far, at least, as 
the eyes are concerned, a dark stable is little less injurious than 
a foul and heated one. In order to illustrate this, reference may 
be made to the unpleasant feeling, and the utter impossibility 
of seeing distinctly, when a man suddenly emerges from a dark 
place into the full glare of day. The sensation of mingled pain 
and giddiness is not speedily forgotten ; and some minutes elapse 
before the eye can accustom itself to the increased light. If 
this were to happen every day, or several times in a day, the 



132 LIGHT. 

sight would be irreparably injured, or possibly blindness would 
be the final result. We need not wonder, then, that the horse, 
taken from a dark stable into a blaze of light, feeling, probably, 
as we should do under similar circumstances, and unable for 
any time to see anything around him distinctly, should become 
a starter ; or that the frequently repeated violent effect of sudden 
light should induce inflammation of the eye so intense as to 
terminate in blindness. There is, indeed, no doubt that horses 
kept in dark stables are frequently notorious starters, and that 
abominable habit has been properly traced to this cause. 

If plenty of light be admitted, the walls of the stable, and 
especially that portion of them which is before the horse's head, 
must not be of too glaring a color. The color of the stable 
should depend on the quantity of light. Where much can be 
admitted, the walls should be of a gray hue. Where darkness 
would otherwise prevail, frequent painting may in some degree 
dissipate the gloom. 

For another reason, it will be evident that the stable should 
not possess too glaring a light ; it is the resting-place of the 
horse. The work of the farmer's horse, indeed, is principally 
confined to the day. The hours of exertion having passed, the 
animal returns to his stable to feed and to repose, and the latter 
is as necessary as the former, in order to prepare him for re- 
newed work. Something like the dimness of twilight is requi- 
site to induce the animal to compose himself to sleep. This 
half-light is more particularly adapted to horses of heavy work. 
In the quietness of a dimly-lighted stable, they obtain repose, 
and accumulate flesh and fat. 



GROOMING. 



133 



GHOOMING. 

To the agriculturist it is not necessary to say much under 
this head, as custom, apparently without any ill effect, has 
allotted so little of the comb and brush for the farmer's horse. 
The animal that is worked all day, and turned out at night, 




mm 

requires little more to be 
done to him than to have the dirt 
brushed off his limbs. Regular grooming, by ren- 
dering his skin more sensitive to the alteration of 
temperature, and the inclemency of weather, would be 
prejudicial. The horse that is altogether turned 
out, needs no grooming. The dandruff, or scurf, which accu- 



134 GROOMING. 

niulates at the roots of the hair, is a provision of nature to 
defend him from the wind and the cold. 

It is to the stabled horse, highly fed, and little or irregularly 
worked, that grooming is of so much consequence. Good 
rubbing with the brush, or the curry-comb, opens the pores of 
the skin, causes the blood to circulate to the extremities of the 
body, produces free and healthy perspiration, and stands in 
the stead of exercise. No horse will carry a fine coat without 
either unnatural heat, or dressing. They both effect the same 
purpose ; they both increase the insensible perspiration ; but 
the first does it at the expense of health and strength, while 
the second, at the same time that it produces a glow on the 
skin, and a determination of blood to it, rouses all the energies 
of the frame. It would be well if the proprietor of the horse 
were to insist — and to see that his orders are implicitly obeyed 
— that the fine coat, in which he and his groom so much de- 
light, is produced by honest rubbing, and not by a heated 
stable and thick clothing, and, most of all, not by stimulating 
or injurious spices. The horse should be regularly dressed 
every day, in addition to the grooming that is necessary after 
work. 

When the weather will permit the horse to be taken out, he 
should never be groomed in the stable, unless he is an animal 
of peculiar value, or placed for a time under peculiar circum- 
stances. Without dwelling on the want of cleanliness, when 
the scurf and dust which are brushed from the horse lodge in 
his manger, experience teaches that, if the cold is not too 
great, the animal is braced and invigorated to a degree that 
cannot be attained in the stable, from being dressed in the 
open air. There is no necessity, however, for half the punish- 



EXERCISE. 135 

inent which is often inflicted upon the horse in the act of 
dressing ; and particularly on one whose skin is thin and sen- 
sitive. The curry-comb should always be applied lightly. 
With many horses, its use may be almost dispensed with ; and 
even the brush does not need to be so hard, nor the points of 
the bristles so irregular as they often are. A soft brush, with 
a little more weight of the hand, will be equally effectual, and 
much more pleasant to the horse. A hair-cloth, while it will 
seldom irritate and tease, will be almost sufficient with horses 
that have a thin skin, and that have not been neglected. After 
all, it is no slight task to dress a horse as it ought to be done. 
It occupies no little time, and demands considerable patience, 
as well as dexterity. It will be readily ascertained whether a 
horse has been well dressed, by rubbing him with one of the 
fingers. A greasy stain will expose the idleness of the groom. 
When, however, the horse is changing his coat, both the 
curry-comb and the brush should be used as lightly as pos- 
sible. 

Whoever would be convinced of the benefit of friction to 
the horse's skin, and to the horse generally, needs only to ob- 
serve the effects produced by rubbing the legs of a tired 
horse well with the hands. While every enlargement subsides, 
and the painful stiffness disappears, and the legs attain their 
natural warmth and become fine, the animal is evidently and 
rapidly reviving ; he takes hold of his food with zest, and then 
quietly lies down to rest. 



EXERCISE. 

The remarks upon this branch, also, can have but a slight 
reference to the agricultural horse. His work is usjiajjy, regu- 



136 



EXERCISE. 



lar, and not exhausting. He is neither predisposed to disease 
by idleness, nor worn out by excessive exertion. He, like his 
master, has enough to do to keep him in health, and not 
enough to distress or injure him ; on the contrary, the regu- 
larity of his work prolongs life to an extent seldom witnessed 
in the stable of the gentleman. These remarks on exercise, 
then, must have a general bearing, or have principal reference 
to those persons who keep a horse for business or pleasure, 
but cannot afford to maintain a servant for the express pur- 
pose of looking after it. The first rule to be laid down is, 
that every horse should have daily exercise. The animal, that 
with the usual stable feeding stands idle for three or four 
days, as is the case in many establishments, must suffer. He 
is predisposed to fever, or to grease, or, most of all, to diseases 
of the foot ; and if, after three or four days of inactivity, he is 
ridden far and fast, he is almost sure to have inflammation of 
the lungs or of the feet. 

Any horse, used for business or pleasure merely, suffers much 

more from idleness 
than he does from 
work. A stable-fed 
horse should have 
two hours' exercise 
every day, if he is 
to be kept free from 
disease. Nothing 
of extraordinary, or 
even of ordinary, 
labor can be effected 
on the road or in 




EXERCISE. 131 

the field, without sufficient and regular exercise. It is this 
which alone can give energy to the system, and develop the 
powers of any animal. 

In training the race-horse, or the horse for hunting pur- 
poses, regular exercise is the most important of all considera- 
tions, however much it may be neglected in the usual manage- 
ment of the stable. The exercised horse will discharge his 
task, and sometimes a severe one, with ease and pleasure; 
while the idle and neglected one will be fatigued before half 
his labor is accomplished ; and, if he is pushed a little too far, 
dangerous inflammation will ensue. How often, nevertheless, 
does it happen, that the horse which has stood inactive in the 
stable for three or four days, is ridden or driven thirty or 
forty miles in the course of a single day ! The rest is often 
purposely given in order that he may be prepared for extra 
exertion — to lay in a stock of strength for the performance 
required of him — and then the owner is surprised and dissatis- 
fied if the animal is fairly knocked up, or possibly becomes 
seriously ill. Nothing is so common and so preposterous, as 
for a person to buy a horse from a dealer's stable, where he has 
been idly fattened for sale for many a day, and immediately to 
give him a long run, and then to complain bitterly, and think 
that he has been imposed upon, if the animal is exhausted be- 
fore the end, or is compelled to be led home suffering from 
violent inflammation. Regular and gradually increasing ex- 
ercise would have made the same horse appear a treasure to 
his owner. 

Exercise should be somewhat proportioned to the age of the 
horse. A young horse requires more than an old one. Na- 
ture has given to young animals of every kind a disposition to 



138 pood. 

activity ; but the exercise must not be violent. Much depends 
upon the manner in which it is given. To preserve the tem^ 
per, and to promote health, it should be moderate, at least at 
the beginning and at the termination. The rapid trot, or even 
the gallop, may be resorted to in the middle of the exercise, 
but the horse should be brought in cool. 



FOOD. 

One half of the diseases of the horse owe their origin to 
over-feeding with hay. This applies more particularly to 
young horses, and to such as are not put to severe work. 
They are ever placed before a full rack, and, like children 
gorged with bread and butter, they eat merely for amusement, 
until at length the stomach gradually becomes preternaturally 
distended, the appetite increases in a relative proportion, be- 
comes sooner or later voracious, and finally merges into a mere 
craving — it being a matter of indifference what the food is, so 
that the stomach is filled with it. This depravity of appetite 
is always accompanied by more or less thirst. This naturally 
enough produces general debility of the entire digestive func- 
tion, including stomach, bowels, liver, spleen, and pancreas ; 
worms are produced in thousands, and symptoms present 
themselves of so many varied hues, that enumeration, far less 
classification, becomes utterly impossible. 

A horse's appetite is not to be taken as the criterion by 
which to determine the quantity of hay which he is to be per- 
mitted to consume ; for most horses will eat three or four times 
as much as they ought. Horses have been known to consume 
thirty pounds weight of hay between a day and a night ; and 
ten pounds is the most that should have been given during 



FOGD. 139 

that time. Upon eight pounds of hay daily, with a due allow- 
ance of oats, a horse can be kept in full work, in prime health 
and spirits. It is better to keep young horses at grass until 
about five years old, and to work them during that period. 
When kept in the stable and not worked they are apt to ac- 
quire many very bad habits ; and if the rack and manger be 
kept empty, with a view of preventing the over-loading of their 
stomachs, they will fall into a habit of playing with and mouth- 
ing them — a habit which finally degenerates into wind-sucking 
or crib-biting. 

The system of manger-feeding is now becoming general 
among farmers. There are few horses that do not habitually 
waste a portion of their hay ; and by some the greater part is 
pulled down and trampled under foot, in order first to cull the 
sweetest and best locks, which could not be done while the 
hay was confined in the rack. A good feeder will afterward 
pick up much of that which was thrown down : but some of it 
must be soiled and rendered disgusting, and, in many cases, 
one-third of this division of their food is wasted. Some of the 
oats and beans are imperfectly chewed by all horses, and 
scarcely at all by hungry and greedy ones. The appearance 
of the dung will sufficiently establish this. 

The observation of this induced the adoption of manger- 
feeding, or of mixing a portion of cut feed with the grain and 
beans. By this means the animal is compelled to chew his 
food ; he cannot, to any great degree, waste the straw or hay; 
the cut feed is too hard and too sharp to be swallowed without 
sufficient mastication, and while he is forced to grind that down, 
the oats and the beans are also ground with it, and thus yield 
more nourishment ; the stomach is more slowly filled, and there- 



140 FOOD. 

fore acts better upon its contents, and is not so likely to be 
over-loaded ; and the increased quantity of saliva thrown out in 
the protracted maceration of the food, softens it, and makes it 
more fit for digestion. 

Cut feed may be composed of equal quantities of clover or of 
meadow hay ; and wheaten, oaten, or barley straw, cut into 
pieces of a half or an inch in length, and mingled well to- 
gether; the allowance of oats or beans is afterwards added, 
and mixed with the whole. Many farmers very properly 
bruise the oats or beans. The whole oat is apt to slip out 
of the feed and be lost; but when it is bruised, and espe- 
cially if the feed is wet a little, it will not readily separate, or, 
should a portion of it escape the grinders, it will be partly pre-, 
pared for digestion by the act of bruising. The prejudice 
against bruising the oats is utterly unfounded, so far as the 
farmer's horse, and the wagon horse, and every horse of slow 
draught, are concerned. The quantity of straw in the feed will 
always counteract, any supposed purgative quality in bruised 
oats. Horses of quicker draught, unless they are actually in- 
clined to scour, will thrive better on bruised than on whole oats ; 
for a greater quantity of nutriment will be extracted from the 
food, and it will always be easy to apportion the quantity of 
straw or beans to the effect of the mixture on the bowels of the 
horse. The principal alteration that should be made for the 
horse of harder and more rapid work, such as the post-horse 
and the stage-coach horse, is to increase the quantity of hay, 
and diminish that of straw. Two trusses of hay may be cut 
with one of straw. 

Some gentlemen, in defiance of the prejudice and opposition 
of the coachman or groom, have introduced this mode of feed- 



POOD. 141 

ing into the stables of their horses, and with manifest advantage. 
There has been no loss of condition or power, and considerable 
saving of provender. This system is not however, calculated 
for the hunter, or the race-horse. Their food must lie in smaller 
bulk, in order that the action of the lungs may not be impeded 
by the distention of the stomach ; yet many hunters have gone 
well over the field who have been manger-fed, the proportion 
of grain, however, being materially increased. 

For the agricultural and cart-horse, eight pounds of oats, and 
two of beans should be added to every twenty pounds of cut 
feed. Thirty-four or thirty-six pounds of the mixture will be 
sufficient for any horse of moderate size, with fair, or even hard, 
work. The dray and wagon horse may require forty pounds. 
Hay in the rack at night is, in this case, supposed to be alto- 
gether omitted. The rack, however, may remain, as occasion- 
ally useful for the sick horse, or to contain green feed. 

Horses are very fond of this provender. The great majority 
of them, after having become accustomed to it, will leave the 
best oats given to them alone, for the sake of the mingled cut 
feed and grain. The farmer should be cautioned, however, 
not to set apart damaged hay for the manufacture of the 
cut feed. The horse may thus be induced to eat that which he 
would otherwise refuse, and if the nourishing property of the 
hay has been impaired, or it has acquired an injurious principle, 
the animal will either lose condition, or become diseased. Much 
more injury is done by eating damaged hay, or musty oats, than 
is generally imagined. There will be sufficient saving in the 
diminished cost of the provender by the introduction of the 
straw and the improved condition of the horse, without poison- 
ing him with the refuse of the farm. For old horses, and for 



142 FOOD. 

those with defective teeth, cut feed is peculiarly useful, and for 
them the grain should be broken down as well as the fodder. 

While the mixture of the cut feed with the grain prevents it 
from being too rapidly devoured and a portion of it swallowed 
whole, and therefore the stomach is not too loaded with that 
on which, as containing the most nutriment, its chief digestive 
power should be exerted ; yet, on the whole, a great deal of 
time is gained by this mode of feeding, and more is left for rest. 
When a horse comes in wearied at the close of the day, it oc- 
cupies, after he has eaten his grain, two or three hours to clear 
his rack. On the system of manger-feeding, the- chaff being 
already cut into small pieces, and the beans and oats bruised, 
he is able fully to satisfy his appetite in an hour and a half. 
Two additional hours are therefore devoted to rest. This is a 
circumstance deserving of much consideration, even in the 
farmer's stable ; and of immense consequence to the stage-coach 
proprietor, the livery-stable keeper, and the owner of every hard- 
worked horse. 

Manger food will be the usual support of the farmer's horse 
during the winter, and while at constant or occasional hard 
work ; but from the middle of April to the end of July, he 
may be fed with this mixture in the day, and turned out at 
night, or he may remain out during every rest-day. A team 
in constant employ should not, however, be suffered to be out 
at night after the end of July. 

The farmer should take care that the pasture is thick and 
good ; and that the distance from the yard is not too great, or 
the fields too large, otherwise a very considerable portion of 
time will be occupied in catching the horse in the morning. 
He will likewise have to take into consideration the sale he 




FOOD. 143 

would have for his hay, and the necessity of sweet and untrod- 
_r-^_ den pasture for his cattle. On the 
whole, however, turning out in this way, 
bs=- when circumstances 
will admit of it, will 
be found to be more 
beneficial for the horse, 
U and cheaper than soil- 
[ ing in the yard. 

The horse of the in- 
ferior farmer is some- 
IH^* times fed on hay or 

OUTTOGKASS. grasg gj^. ^ ^ 

animal, although he rarely gets a feed of grain, maintains him- 
self in tolerable condition, and performs the work required of 
him ; but hay and grass alone however good in quality, or in 
whatever quantity allowed, will not support a horse under hard 
work. Other substances, containing a large proportion of 
nutriment in a smaller compass, have been added; a brief 
enumeration of which follows, and an estimate is formed of their 
comparative value. 

In almost every part of Great Britain and this country, oats 
have been selected as that portion of the food which is to afford 
the principal nourishment. They contain from seven hundred 
and forty-three to seven hundred and fifty parts of the nutri- 
tive matter. They should be about, or somewhat less than, a 
year old, heavy, dry, and sweet. New oats will weigh ten or 
fifteen per cent, more than old ones; but the difference consists 
principally in watery matter, which is gradually evaporated. 
New oats are not so readily ground down by the teeth as old 



144 FOOD. 

ones. They form a more glutinous mass, difficult to digest, 
and, when eaten in considerable quantities, are apt to occa- 
sion colic, or even staggers. If they are to be used before 
they are from three to five months old, they would be materi- 
ally improved by a little kiln-drying. There is no fear for 
the horses from simple drying, if the grain is good when put 
into the kiln. The old oat forms, when chewed, a smooth and 
uniform mass, which readily dissolves in the stomach, and 
yields the nourishment which it contains. Perhaps some chemi- 
cal change may have been slowly effected in the old oat, dis- 
posing it to be more readily assimilated. Oats should be 
plump, bright in color, and free from unpleasant smell or taste. 
The musty smell of wet or damaged grain is produced by a 
fungus growing upon the seed, which has an injurious effect 
upon the urinary organs, and often on the intestines, producing 
profuse staling, inflammation of the kidneys, colic, and inflam- 
mation of the bowels. 

This musty smell is removed by kiln-drying the oat; but 
care is here requisite that too great a degree of heat is not 
employed. It should be sufficient to destroy the fungus with- 
out injuring the life of the seed. A considerable improvement 
would be effected by cutting the unthrashed oat-straw into 
chaff, and the expense of thrashing would be saved. Oat- 
straw is better than that of barley, but does not contain so 
much nutriment as that of wheat. 

When the horse is fed on hay and oats, the quantity of the 
oats must vary with his size and the work to be performed. 
In winter, four feeds, or from ten to fourteen pounds of oats in 
the day, will be a fair allowance for a horse of fifteen hands 
and one or two inches in height, and that has moderate work. 



FOOD. 145 

In summer, half the quantity with green feed will be sufficient. 
Those which work on the farm have from ten to fourteen 
pounds, and the hunter from twelve to sixteen. There are no 
efficient and safe substitutes for good oats ; but, on the contrary, 
it may be safely asserted, that they possess an invigorating pro- 
perty which is found in no other kind of food. 

Oatmeal forms a poultice more stimulating than one com- 
posed of linseed-meal alone — or they may be mingled in different 
proportions, as circumstances require. In the form of gruel, 
it constitutes one of the most important articles of diet for the 
sick horse ; not, indeed, to be forced upon him, but a pail con- 
taining it being slung in his box, of which he will soon begin 
to drink when water is denied. Gruel is generally either not 
boiled long enough, or a sufficient quantity of oatmeal is not 
used for it. The proportions should be, a pound of meal thrown 
into a gallon of water, and kept constantly stirred until it boils, 
and five minutes afterwards. 

White-water, made by stirring a pint of oatmeal in a pail of 
water, the chill being taken from it, is an excellent beverage 
for the thirsty and tired horse. 

Barley is a common food of the horse in various parts of the 
continent, and, until the introduction of oats, seems to have 
constituted almost his only food. It is more nutritious than 
oats, containing nine hundred and twenty parts of nutritive 
matter in every thousand. There seems, however to be some- 
thing necessary besides a great proportion of nutritive matter, 
in order to render any substance wholesome, strengthening, or 
fattening ; therefore it is, that with many horses that are hardly 
worked, and, indeed, with horses generally, barley does not 
agree so well as oats. They are occasionally subject to inflam- 
matory complaints, and particularly to surfeit and mange. 
10 



146 FOOD. 

When barley is given, the quantity should not exceed a peck 
daily. It should always be bruised, and the chaff should con- 
sist of equal quantities of hay and barley-straw, and not cut too 
short. If the farmer has a quantity of spotted or unsalable 
barley that he wishes thus to get rid of, he must accustom his 
horses to it very gradually, or he will probably produce serious 
illness among them. For horses that are recovering from illness, 
barley, in the form of malt, is often serviceable, as tempting the 
appetite and recruiting the strength. It is best given in mashes 
—water, considerably below the boiling heat, being poured upon 
it, and the vessel or pail kept covered for half an hour. 

Grain, fresh from the mash-tub, either alone or mixed with 
oats or chaff, or both, may be given occasionally to horses of slow 
draught ; they would, however, afford very insufficient nourish- 
ment for horses of quicker or harder work. 

Wheat is more rarely given than barley. It contains nine 
hundred and fifty-five parts of nutritive matter. When farmers 
have a damaged or unmarketable sample of wheat, they some- 
times give it to their horses, and, it being at first used in small 
quantities, they become accustomed to it, and thrive and work 
well ; it should, however, always be bruised, and given in chaff. 
Wheat contains a greater portion of gluten, or sticky, adhesive 
matter, than any other kind of grain. It is difficult of diges- 
tion, and apt to cake and form obstructions in the bowels. This 
will more often be the case, if the horse is suffered to drink 
much water soon after feeding upon it. 

Fermentation, colic, and death, are occasionally the conse- 
quence of eating any great quantity of wheat. A horse that is 
fed on it, should have very little hay. The proportion should 
not be more than one truss of hay to two of straw. Wheat or 



POOD. 



14T 



flour, boiled in water, to the thickness of starch, is given with 
good effect in over-purging, especially if combined with chalk 
and opium. 

Bran, or the ground husk of the wheat, used to be frequently 
given to sick horses, on account of the supposed advantage 
derived from its relaxing the bowels. There is no doubt that 
it does operate gently on the intestinal canal, and assists in 
quickening the passage of its contents, when occasionally given ; 
but it must not be a constant, or even frequent food. Bran or 
pollard often accumulates in the intestines, when given injudi- 
ciously, seriously impairing the digestive powers. Bran may, 
however, be useful as an occasional aperient in the form of a 
mash, but never should become a regular article of food. 

Beans afford a striking illustration of the principle, that the 
nourishing or strengthening effects of the different articles of 
===--~zBji_ food depend more upon some peculiar pro- 
perty which they possess, or upon some 
combination which they form, than 
upon the actual 
quantity of nutri- 
tive matter. Beans 
j contain but from 
--. - 1 five hundred and 
twenty to six hun- 
dred parts of nu- 
tritive matter ; yet 
they add materially to the vigor of the horse. There are many 
horses that will not stand hard work without beans being 
mingled with their food; and there are horses, whose ten- 
dency to purge it may be necessary to restrain by the astrin- 




THE AMERICAN RACER, BLACK MARIA. 



148 pood. 

gency of the bean. There are few travelers who are not aware 
of the difference in the spirit and continuance of the horse, 
whether he is allowed or denied beans during the continuance 
of the journey. They afford not merely a temporary stimulus, 
but they may be daily used without losing their power, or pro- 
ducing exhaustion. They are indispensable to the hard-worked 
coach-horse. Weakly horses could never get through their 
work without them ; and old horses would otherwise often sink 
under the task imposed upon them. They should not be given 
whole, or split, but crushed. This will make a material differ- 
ence in the quantity of nutriment which will be extracted. They 
are sometimes given to turf-horses, but only as an occasional 
stimulant. Two pounds of beans may, with advantage, be 
mixed with the chaff of the agricultural horse, during the winter. 
In summer, the quantity of beans should be lessened, or they 
should be altogether discontinued. Beans are generally given 
whole. This is very absurd ; for the young horse, whose teeth 
are strong, seldom requires them ; while the old horse, to whom 
they are in a measure necessary, is scarcely able to masticate 
them, swallows many of them which he is unable to break, and 
drops much grain from his mouth in the ineffectual attempt to 
crush them. Beans should not be merely split, but crushed ; as 
they will even then furnish sufficient employment for the grin- 
ders of the animal. Some persons use chaff with beans, instead 
of oats. This may possibly be allowed with hardly-worked 
horses ; but, in general cases, beans without oats would be too 
binding and stimulating, and would produce costiveness, and 
probably megrims or staggers. 

Beans should be at least a twelvemonth old before they are 
given to the horse, and they should be carefully preserved from 



FOODr 149 

damp and mouldiness, which at least disgust the animal, if 
they do no other harm, and harbor an insect which destroys 
the inner part of the bean. 

The straw of the bean is nutritive and wholesome, and is 
usually given to the horses. Its nutritive properties are sup- 
posed to be little inferior to those of oats. The small and 
plump bean is generally the best. 

Peas are occasionally given. They appear to be in a slight 
degree more nourishing than beans, and not so heating. They 
contain five hundred and seventy-four parts of nutritive matter. 
For horses of slow work they may be used ; but the quantity 
of chaff should be increased, and a few oats added. They have 
not been found to answer with horses of quick draught. It is 
essential that they should be crushed ; otherwise, on account of 
their globular form, they are apt to escape from the teeth, and 
many are swallowed whole. Exposed to warmth and moisture 
in the stomach, they swell considerably, and may painfully and 
injudiciously distend it. The peas that are given to horses 
should be sound, and at least a year old. In some sections, 
pea-meal is frequently used, not only as an excellent food for 
the horse, but as a remedy for diabetes. 

Linseed is sometimes given to sick horses — raw, ground, and 
boiled. It is supposed to be useful in cases of catarrh. 

Indian Corn in combination with roots, forms a valuable 
article of diet. Horses will eat the mess with an avidity of 
appetite calculated to excite surprise at first. The mess, to 
which a little salt should invariably be added, will keep them 
in fair average condition ; and those which it is desirable to 
fatten may have a small quantity of oats, pea or bran meal 
added. 



150 pood. 

Hay is most in perfection when it is about a year old. The 
horse, perhaps, would prefer it earlier, but it is then neither so 
wholesome nor so nutritive, and often has a purgative quality. 
When it is about a year old, it retains, or should retain, some- 
what of its green color, its agreeable smell, and its pleasant 
taste. It has undergone the slow process of fermentation, by 
which the sugar which it contains is developed, and its nutritive 
quality is fully exercised. Old hay becomes dry and tasteless, 
and innutritive and unwholesome. After the grass is cut, and 
the hay stacked, a slight degree of fermentation takes place in 
it. This is necessary for the development of the saccharine 
principle ; but it occasionally proceeds too far, and the hay be- 
comes mow-burnt, in which state it is injurious, or even poison- 
ous. The horse soon shows the effect which it has upon him. 
He has diabetes to a considerable degree ; he becomes, hide- 
bound ; his strength is wasted ; his thirst is excessive ; and he 
is almost worthless. 

Where the system of manger-feeding is not adopted, or where 
hay is still allowed at night, and chaff and grain in the day, 
there is no error into which the farmer is so apt to fall as to 
give an undue quantity, and that generally of the worst kind. 
The pernicious results of this practice have been already men- 
tioned in the commencement of this head, and the practice can- 
not be too strongly reprobated. 

It is a good practice to sprinkle the hay with water in which 
salt has been dissolved. It is evidently more palatable to the 
animal who will leave the best unsalted hay for that of an infe- 
rior quality which has been moistened with brine ; and there 
can be no doubt that the salting materially assists the process 
of digestion. The preferable way of salting hay is to sprinkle 



FOOD. 151 

it over the different layers as it is put away, or as the stack is 
formed. From its attraction to water, it would combine with 
that excess of moisture which in wet seasons, is the cause of too 
rapid and violent fermentation, and of the hay becoming mois- 
tened, or of the stack catching fire, and it would become more 
incorporated with the hay. The only objection to its being thus 
used is, that the color of the hay is not so bright ; but this will 
be of little consequence for home consumption. 

Clover is useful for soiling the horse ; and clover hay is 
preferable to meadow hay for chaff. It will sometimes tempt 
the sick horse, and may be given with advantage to those of 
slow and heavy work ; but custom seems properly to have for- 
bidden it to the roadster or those used for quick work. 

The Swedish Turnip is an article of food, the value of 
which, particularly for agricultural horses, has not been suf- 
ficiently appreciated. Although it is far from containing the 
amount of nutritive matter which many have supposed, that 
which it has seems to be capable of complete and easy diges- 
tion. It should be sliced with chopped straw, and without hay. 
It quickly fattens the horse, and produces a smooth glossy coat 
and a loose skin. It is a good plan to give it once a day, and 
that at night when the work is done. 

The virtues of Carrots are not sufficiently known, both as 
contributing to the strength and endurance of the sound horse, 
and to the rapid recovery of the sick one. To the healthy 
horse they should be given sliced in his chaff. Half a bushel 
will be a fair daily allowance. There is little provender, of 
which the horse is more fond. There is none better, nor, per- 
haps, so good. When first given, it is slightly diuretic and 
laxative, but as the horse becomes accustomed to it, these effects 



152 FOOD. 

cease to be produced. They also improve the state of the skin. 
They form a good substitute for grass, and an excellent altera- 
tive for horses out of condition. For sick and idle horses they 
render grain unnecessary. They are beneficial in all chronic 
diseases connected with breathing, and have a marked influence 
upon chronic cough and broken wind. They are serviceable 
in diseases of the skin, and in combination with oats they re- 
store a worn horse much sooner than oats alone. 

Potatoes have been given and with advantage in their raw 
state, sliced with chaff; but, where it has been convenient to 
boil or steam them, the benefit has been far more evident. 
Purging then has rarely ensued. Some have given boiled pota- 
toes alone, and horses, instead of rejecting them, have soon 
preferred them even to oats ; but it is better to mix them with the 
usual manger feed, in the proportion of one pound of potatoes 
to two and a half pounds of the other ingredients. The use of 
the potato must depend upon its cheapness, and the facility 
for boiling it. Those who have tried potatoes extensively in 
the feeding of horses, assert that an acre of potatoes goes as 
far as four acres of hay. A horse fed upon them should have 
his quantity of water materially curtailed. Half a dozen horses 
would soon repay the expense of a steaming boiler for potatoes 
in the saving of provender alone, without taking into account 
their improved condition and capability for work. v 

The times of feeding should be as equally divided as conve- 
nience will permit ; and when it is likely that the horse will be 
kept longer than usual from home, the nose-bag should inva- 
riably be taken. The small stomach of the horse is emptied in 
a few hours ; and if he is allowed to remain hungry much be- 
yond his accustomed time, he will afterwards devour his food 



WATER. 153 

so voraciously as to distend the stomach and endanger an attack 
of the staggers. 

When extra work is required from the animal, the system of 
management is often injudicious ; for a double feed is put upon 
him, and as soon as he has swallowed it, he is started. It would 
be far better to give him a double feed on the previous evening, 
which would be digested before he is wanted, and then he might 
set out in the morning, after a very small portion of grain had 
been given to him, or, perhaps, only a little hay. One of the 
most successful methods of enabling a horse to get well through 
a long journey, is to give him only a little at a time while on 
the road, and at night to indulge him with a double feed of 
grain and a full allowance of beans. 



WATEE. 

The watering of the horse is a very important but disregarded 
portion of his general management, especially by the farmer. 
He lets his horses loose morning and night, and they go to the 
nearest pond or brook and drink their fill, and no harm results ; 
for they obtain that kind of water which nature designed them 
to have, in a manner prepared for them by some unknown in- 
fluence of the atmosphere, as well as by the deposition of many 
saline admixtures. 

The kind of water fitted for the horse has not been, as a 
general thing, sufficiently considered. The difference between 
what is termed hard and soft water, is a circumstance of general 
observation. The former contains certain saline principles, 
which decompose some bodies, as appears in the curdling of 
soap, and prevent the decomposition of others, as in the making 
of tea, the boiling of vegetables, and the process of brewing. 



154 WATER. 

It is natural to suppose that these different kinds of water would 
produce somewhat differing effects upon the animal frame : and 
such is the case. Hard water, freshly drawn from the well, 
will frequently roughen the coat of the horse unaccustomed to 
it, or cause griping pains, or materially lessen the animal's 
power of exertion. The racing and the hunting-groom are 
perfectly aware of this ; and instinct or experience has made 
even the horse conscious of it, for he will never drink hard 
water if he has access to soft, and he will leave the most trans- 
parent and the purest water of the well for a river, although 
the stream may be turbid, and even for the muddiest pool. 
Some trainers, indeed, have so much fear of hard or strange 
water, that they carry with them to the different courses the 
water which the animal has been accustomed to drink, and that 
which they know agrees with it. 

The temperature of the water is of far more consequence than 
its hardness. It will rarely harm if taken from the pond or 
the running stream; but its coldness, when recently drawn from 
the well, has often proved injurious ; it has produced colic, 
spasms, and even death. 

There is often considerable prejudice against the horse being 
fairly supplied with water. It is supposed to chill him, to 
injure his wind, or to incapacitate him for hard work. It cer- 
tainly would do so, if, immediately after drinking his fill, he 
were galloped hard ; but not if he were suffered to quench his 
thirst more frequently when at rest in the stable. The horse 
that has free access to water, will not drink so much in the 
course of the day as another, who, in order to cool his parched 
mouth, swallows as fast as he can, and knows not when to 
stop. 



WATER. 155 

A horse may, with perfect safety, be far more liberally sup- 
plied with water than he generally is. An hour before his work 
commences, he should be permitted to drink a couple of quarts. 
A greater quantity might probably be objectionable. He will 
perform his task far more pleasantly and effectually than with 
a parched mouth and tormenting thirst. The prejudice both 
of the hunting and the training groom on this point is cruel, 
as well as injurious. The task or the journey being accom- 
plished, and the horse having had his head and neck dressed, 
his legs and feet washed, should have his water before his body 
is cleaned. When dressed, his grain may be offered to him, 
which he will readily take ; but water should never be given 
immediately before or after the grain. 

If the horse were watered three times a day, especially in 
summer, he would often be saved from the sad torture of thirst 
and from many a disease. Whoever has observed the eagerness 
with which the overworked horse, hot and tired, plunges his 
muzzle into the pail, and the difficulty of stopping him before 
he has drained the last drop, may form some idea of his previ- 
ous suffering, and will not wonder at the violent spasms, inflam- 
mation, and sudden death, that often follow. 

It is a judicious rule with travelers, that when a horse begins 
to refuse his food, he should be pushed no further that day. It 
may, however, be worth while to ascertain whether this does 
not proceed from thirst as much as from exhaustion ; for in 
many instances his appetite and his spirits will return soon 
after he has partaken of the refreshing draught. 



156 PASTURING. 

PASTURING. 

So far as mere health is concerned, grass is the most salubri- 
ous food which the Jiorse can receive. When it is eaten where 
it grows, the horse is said to be turned out, to be getting a run 
at grass, or to be at grass. When it is cut, and consumed in 
the stable, the horse is said to be soiled. 

It is probable that grass eaten in the field produces quite the 
same effects as that eaten in the stable. But at pasture, there 
are several agents in operation to which the stabled horse is not 
necessarily exposed. The exercise which he must take ; the 
position which his head must assume, in order that he may ob- 
tain food ; the annoyance he suffers from flies ; his exposure to 
the weather ; the influence of the soil upon the feet and legs ; 
and the quantity of food placed at his disposal ; are the prin- 
cipal points wherein pasturing differs from soiling. 

The Exercise which he must take as he gathers his food, 
varies according to the herbage. When the ground is bare, 
the exercise may amount even to work, but to a sound horse 
it is never injurious ; in cold weather it keeps him warm, or, 
at least, prevents him from becoming very cold. With a lame 
horse, the case is different. In some species of lameness, as 
in chronic diseases of the joints, the slow but constant exercise 
thus rendered necessary is highly beneficial ; but the exertion 
demanded by a bare pasture is unfavorable to any sprain or 
lameness arising from disease in the ligaments and tendons. 
Lameness, when very great, no matter where seated, forbids 
pasturing, even though the grass be knee-high. The pain of 
standing, and moving on two or three legs, may be so great 
that the horse will be obliged to lie down before he has ob- 



PASTURING. 



157 



tained half a meal. It is for slight lameness only that horses 
should be turned out ; and the pasture should be such as to 
afford sufficient nutriment, without giving the horse more ex- 
ercise than is good for the disease. 

The legs of fast-working horses often become turned, shape- 
less, tottering, bent at the knee, and 
straight at the pasterns. These 
always improve at 
pig 1 pasture, as, indeed, 
they do in the sta- 
ble, or loose-box, 
J when the horse is 
thrown out of work. 
Grazing exercise 
does not appear to 
pasturing. be unfavorable to 

their restoration ; but when the knees are very much bent, the 
horse is unfit for turning out ; he cannot graze ; when his head 
is down, he is ready to fall upon his nose, and it costs him 
much effort to maintain his balance. 

The position op the head in the act of grazing is unfavor- 
able to the return of blood from the brain, from the eyes, from 
all parts of the head. Horses that have had staggers, or bad 
eyes, those that have recently lost a jugular vein, and those 
that have any disease about the head— strangles, for instance — 
should not be sent to pasture. The disease becomes worse, or, 
if gone, is apt to return. Even healthy horses are liable to 
attacks on the brain, when turned to grass, particularly when 
the weather is hot, and the herbage abundant. 

Horses that have been for more than a year in the stable, 




158 PASTURING. 

and especially those that have been reined up in harness, often 
experience considerable difficulty in grazing. The neck is 
rigid, and the muscles which support the head are short. It 
is often several weeks before an old coach-horse can graze 
with ease. Yery old coach-horses that have short, stiff necks, 
should not be turned out when they can be kept in ; if they 
must go, they should be watched, lest they die of want. 

Exposure to the Weather. Wet, cold weather always 
produces emaciation and a long coat. If the horse is put out 
without preparation, he is apt to have an attack of inflamed 
lungs, or sore throat, or a common cold, with discharge from 
the nose, and may sicken and die. Many persons seem to think 
that no usage is too bad for the horse, if it do not immediately 
produce some fatal disease. Early in spring, or late in au- 
tumn, the animal is turned out of a warm, comfortable stable, 
and left to battle with the weather as he best can. He crouches 
to the side of a wall, shivering and neglected, as if he had no 
friend in the world. In time, the horse becomes inured to the 
weather, if he does not sink under it, but sometimes he comes 
home with diseased lungs, and very often with a cough which 
never leaves him, and which produces broken wind. 

Shelter, so easily provided — at the cost of a few rude 
boards even — is too much neglected in the pasture. A hovel, 
covered on three sides, the fourth open to the south, and just 
high enough to admit the horse, will answer the purpose. 
The bottom should be sloping, elevated, and quite dry. When 
litter can be afforded, it will tempt the horse out of the blast. 
There may be hay-racks and mangers, strong, though of rude 
construction. In summer, the horse can retire here during the 
heat of the day, and in the more inclement season he may thus 
avoid the wind and the storm. 



PASTURING. 159 

Exposure to hot weather is not so pernicious, although it 
always produces pain, if .the horse be turned out in the middle 
of summer. For a while he is fevered all day and loses flesh ; 
but he soon recovers. The parts that are most apt to suffer 
are the brain and the eyes. Staggers, that is, an affection of 
the brain, is not common, and the eyes never suffer permanent 
mischief. They are inflamed by the flies, but the brain is in- 
jured, partly by the heat, and partly by the pendent position 
of the head. 

Flies. The horse is persecuted by at least three kinds of 
flies. One, the common horse-fly, settles on his ears and dif- 
ferent parts of his body, tickling and teazing him. Another is 
a large fly, termed the gad-fly ; it is a blood-sucker, bites pretty 
smartly, and irritates some tender-skinned horses almost to 
madness, forcing them sometimes to rush into the water to 
escape their attacks. Another fly is a small insect, whose name 
is unknown, which lives in the blood, attacking those parts 
where the skin is thinnest, as the eyelids, inside and outside, the 
sheath, and the vagina. The eyelids especially always swell 
where this fly abounds, and the swelling is sometimes so great 
as to make the horse nearly blind, while the eye is red and 
weeping. The injury however, is not permanent. 

The principal defense which the horse has against these 
puny, but tormenting enemies, is his tail. On some parts of 
his body he can remove them with his teeth and his feet ; and 
that which cannot be clone by these, is done by the tail. With 
us, however, in far too many instances the effective instrument 
which nature has furnished is removed, or materially impaired, 
before he has attained maturity; and, as if the pains of 
servitude were not sufficiently great and numerous, domestica- 
tion is rendered still more intolerable by whim and caprice. 



160 PASTURING. 

The soil. Much has been said about the influence of the 
soil upon the horse's feet and legs, and much exaggeration of 
assertion has been set afloat. Horses reared in soft, marshy- 
pastures have large flat feet, low at the heels, and weak every- 
where. On dry ground the hoof is hard, strong, and small, 
the sole concave, and the heels high. But to impart any 
peculiar character to the hoof, or to produce any change upon 
it, a long and continuous residence upon the same kind of 
soil is necessary. A period of six months may produce some 
change; but it is so insignificant in general that it is not 
apparent. 

The low temperature at which the feet and legs are kept in 
a moist pasture has probably some influence, though not very 
great, in abating inflammation in those parts. The legs be- 
come finer and free from tumors and gourdiness ; but they 
would improve nearly or quite as soon, and as much, in a 
loose box. 

When the pastures are hard and baked by the sun, unshod 
horses are apt to break away the crust, and they often come 
home with hardly horn enough to hold a nail. Feet that have 
never been shod suffer less ; others should, as a general thing, 
be preserved by light shoes, especially on the fore feet ; kick- 
ing horses, when shod behind, are rather dangerous among 
others. 

It has been supposed that the act of grazing throws con- 
siderable stress upon the tendons of the fore legs, and ulti- 
mately impairs them. This has been urged against grazing 
hunters ; but so far as sound legs are concerned, there seems 
to be no foundation for the supposition, and it certainly has 
never been proved. 



PASTURING. 161 

Quantity of food. In the stable, a horse's food can be 
apportioned to him as his wants may require ; but at pasture, 
he may get too much or too little. It is difficult to put the 
horse where he will obtain all the nourishment he needs, and 
no more. In a rich pasture, he may acquire an inconvenient 
load of fat ; in a poor one, he may be half starved. If he 
must go out, he may be taken in before he becomes too fat ; 
or he may be placed in a bad pasture, and fed up to the point 
required by a daily allowance of grain. 

Time of turning out. Horses are pastured at all times of 
the year. Some are out for lameness, some for bad health, 
and some, that they may be kept for less than the stable 
cost. The usual time of turning out is about the end of 
April, or the beginning of May. Then the grass is young, 
juicy, tender, and more laxative than at a later period. The 
spring grass is best for a horse in bad health, worn out by 
sickness, hard work, or bad food. The weather is mild, neither 
too hot nor too cold ; when it is unsettled and backward, the 
delicate horse, and sometimes every one, should come in at 
night and on bleak days. Toward the end of summer, the 
grass is hard, dry, coarse, fit enough to afford nutriment, but 
not to renovate a shattered constitution. The days are hot, 
the nights cold and damp, and the flies strong and numerous. 
This is not the time for turning out a delicate or thin-skinned 
horse. 

Many persons are accustomed to give the horse a dose or 
two of physic before sending him to grass. Unless the animal 
has tumid legs, or is afflicted with some ailment, this is en- 
tirely unnecessary, though it may do no harm. To prepare 
the horse for exposure to the weather, the clothing to which 
11 



162 PASTURING. 

he has been accustomed is lightened, and then entirely re- 
moved, a week or two before turning him out. The tempera- 
ture of the stable is gradually reduced, until it becomes as 
cool as the external air. These precautions are most neces- 
sary for horses that have been much in the stable, and particu- 
larly a warm stable. For eight or ten days previous to going 
out, the animal should not be groomed. The dust and per- 
spiration which accumulate upon the hair, seem in some, 
measure to protect the skin from rain and from flies. The 
feet should be dressed, and the grass shoes, or plates, applied 
a week before turning out. If they are injured by the nails, 
the injury will become apparent before much mischief is done ; 
at grass it might not be noticed so soon. On the day of going 
out, the horse should be fed as usual. If he goes to grass 
when very hungry, he may eat too much. Indigestion will be 
the result, which may prove fatal. Weather permitting, night 
is usually chosen for the time of turning out, as the horse is 
not so apt to gallop about. Let loose in the day time, many 
are disposed to gallop till they lame themselves, and to try 
the fences. 

In autumn, or early in spring, the stable preparation for 
grass is often insufficient. If the horse be tender, or the 
weather unsettled, he should be taken home every night, 
for perhaps the first week. For eight or ten days longer, 
it may be proper to house him on very wet or stormy nights. 
The stable given to him should always be cool, not so cold 
as the external air, but never so warm as if he were accus- 
tomed to it. 

Confinement. Some horses are not easily confined at pas- 
ture. They break or leap the fences, and wander over the 



PASTURING. 163 

country, or proceed to the stable. The fore feet are some- 
times shackled in order to confine them ; but these fetters, if 
worn for a long time, are apt to alter the horse's action, ren- 
dering it short, confined, irregular, at least for a time, till he 
regains the use of his shoulders. Sometimes the horse is tied 
by a rope to a stake driven in the ground, He then requires 
almost constant watching, for he must be often shifted as he 
eats down the grass, and he may get his legs entangled in the 
rope, thereby casting himself, and receiving serious injury, 
unless relief be immediate. Sometimes he is tied to a stake, 
which he can drag about the field. He soon finds that he can 
walk where he pleases, but he cannot run, and seldom attempts 
to leap. This, however, is also liable to throw the horse 
down, or to injure his legs by getting them entangled in the 
rope. To prevent the horse from leaping, a board is some- 
times suspended round his neck, reaching to his knees, which 
it as apt to bruise. None of these clumsy and unsafe restraints 
should ever be employed, when it is possible to dispense with 
them. Few horses, mares in spring and stallions excepted, 
require them after the first two days. For horses that are 
turned out only an hour or two during the day, they are as 
much used to enable him to be easily caught when wanted, as 
to prevent him from wandering. 

Attendance while out. Horses at grass should be visited 
at least once every day. If neglected for weeks, as often 
happens, one may be stolen, and conveyed out of the country 
before he is missed ; the fences may be broken ; the water 
may fail ; the horses may be lamed, or attacked with sickness; 
one may roll into a ditch, and die there for want of assistance 
to extricate him ; the shoes may be cast ; the heels may crack ; 



164 PASTURING. 

thrushes may form ; sores may run into sinuses, or become full 
of maggots ; the feet and legs may be injured by stubs, thorns, 
broken glass, or kicks ; or the horses may quarrel, fight, and 
wound each other. That these and similar evils and accidents 
may be obviated, or soon repaired, the horses should be visited 
every morning by a trustworthy person who knows what is re- 
quired of him. 

The grain, hay — either or both — if any be given, should be 
furnished at regular intervals ; when fed with grain, the horses 
ought to be watched till it is eaten, lest they rob each other, 
or some prowling thief appropriate the whole. Horses at 
grass require, and should have, no dressing, as it exposes the 
skin too much. The shoes may be removed, however, and the 
feet dressed every four or five weeks. 

Treatment after Grazing. When taken from grass to 
warm stables, and put upon rich, constipating food, horses fre- 
quently become diseased. Some catch cold, some suffer in- 
flammation in the eyes, some take swelled legs, cracked heels, 
grease, thrushes, founders, surfeit, or a kind of mange. 
These are very common ; and physic is often, and indeed 
generally, given to prevent them. They are produced by a 
combination of circumstances ; by sudden transition from gentle 
exercise and indolence or exciting work; from a temperate to 
stimulating diet ; from a pure, cool, and moving atmosphere, 
to an air comparatively corrupt, hot, and stagnant. These 
changes must be made, and are, to a certain extent, unavoid- 
able ; but it is not in all cases necessary that they should be 
made suddenly. It is the rapid transition from one thing to 
another and a different thing, that does all the mischief. If it 
were effected by slow degrees, the evils would be avoided, and 



PASTURING. 165 

there would be less need, or none at all, for those medicines 
which are given to prevent them. 

During the first week, the temperature of the stable ought 
to be little different from that of the external air, Sub- 
sequently it may be raised, by slow degrees, till it is as warm 
as the work or other circumstances demand. The horse should 
not at first be clothed, and his first clothing should be light. 
Grooming may commence on the first day ; but it is not good 
to expose the skin very quickly by a thorough dressing. The 
food should be laxative, consisting of bran-mashes, oats, and 
hay ; but no beans, or very few. Walking-exercise, twice a 
day, is absolutely necessary for keeping the legs clean, and it. 
assists materially in preventing plethora. 

The time required for inuring a horse to stable treatment, 
depends upon several circumstances. If taken home in warm 
weather, the innovation, so far as the temperance and the 
purity of the air are concerned, may be completed in about 
two weeks. If the horse is not very lean, his skin may be well 
cleaned in the first week ; and to clean it, he must have one or 
two gentle sweats, sufficient to detach and dissolve the dust, 
mud, and oily matter which adhere to the skin, and glue the 
hair together. All this, or as much of it as possible, must foe 
scraped off while the horse is warm and perspiring. If it is 
allowed to get dry before scraping, he is just where he was. 
If the weather be cold, there need be no great hurry about 
cleaning him completely. 

The propriety of giving physic after grazing has been often 
questioned. In the stable, its utility is generally acknow- 
ledged. In books it is sometimes condemned as pernicious, 
sometimes as useless. It may be safely said, however, that 



166 PASTURING-. 

there are many cases in which physic is very useful ; but that, 
as a general thing, it is given too indiscriminately, and before 
it is wanted. 

To a lusty horse, one or two doses may be given for the 
purpose of reducing him, for removing superfluous fat and 
flesh. The physic may be strong, sufficiently so to produce 
copious purgation. It empties the bowels, takes up the carcass, 
and gives freedom to respiration ; it promotes absorption, and 
expels the juices which embarrass exertion. Work, sweating, 
and a spare diet of condensed food, will produce effects with- 
out the aid of physic. But purgation shortens the time of 
training, and it saves the legs. If the horse must be rapidly 
prepared for work, with as little hazard as possible to his legs, 
he must have physic. The first dose may be given on the day 
When he comes from grass ; the others, if more than one be 
necessary, at intervals of eight or ten clear days. 

A lean horse, fresh from grass, needs no physic till he has 
been stabled for several days, and perhaps not then. By the 
time he has acquired strength sufficient to stand training, his 
bowels are void of grass, and his belly small enough to allow 
freedom of respiration. At the end of a fortnight or three 
weeks, the lean horse ought to be decidedly lustier. If too 
much so, and acquiring flesh too rapidly, one dose of physic 
may be given, active enough to produce smart purgation, and 
prevent the evils which arise from plethora. If he is not 
taking on flesh so rapidly as he should, he may have two, 
perhaps three, mild doses of physic, just active enough to 
produce one or two watery or semi-fluid evacuations. If he 
eat a great deal without improving in condition, he is probably 
troubled with worms, and half a drachm of calomel may be 



PASTURING. 16 1 

added to each dose of physic. If he does not feed well, there 
is probably a torpid state of the digestive apparatus, produced 
by a bad or deficient diet. Iu such a case, mild physic is 
still proper, and, in addition, the horse may have a few tonic 
balls between the setting of one dose and the administration 
of another. Four drachms of gentian, two of ginger, and one 
of tartar emetic, made into a ball with honey, forms a very 
useful tonic. One of these may be given every day, or every 
second day, for a fortnight. If the horse does not improve 
under these, he requires the aid of a veterinary surgeon. 

The mode of grazing farm-horses requires some notice. 
Other horses are sent to pasture, and with few exceptions, re- 
main at it for days and weeks without interruption. Those 
employed in agriculture are pastured in three different ways. 
By one, the horse is constantly at grass, except during his 
hours of work; he is put out at night, is brought in the 
next morning, goes to work for two or three hours, and is 
then returned to pasture for about two hours ; in the afternoon 
he again goes to work, which may be concluded at five or six 
o'clock, and from that time till he is wanted on the next morn- 
ing he is kept at grass. By another mode, the horse is turned 
out only at night. During the day he is soiled in his stable 
at his resting intervals. When work is over for the day, he 
is sent out till the next morning. By the third mode, which 
is generally allowed to be the best, the horse is turned to grass 
only once a week. He is pastured from the time his work is 
finished on Saturday night till it commences again on Monday 
morning. 

If the horses have any thing like work, the first two modes 
are decidedly objectionable. There is much expenditure of 



168 SERVICE. 

labor in procuring the food, and there is great loss of time. 
It may cost the horse four or five hours good work to cut 
down the grass which he eats. A man supplied with a scythe 
will do the same work with far less labor! in a few minutes. 
If there be nothing else for the horse to do, it is quite right 
to make him gather his own food. But, otherwise, it is absurd 
to make him exhaust his strength and time in doing that which 
a man can do so much more easily and quickly. Besides this 
expenditure of the horse's time and strength, the loss of 
manure, and the damage done to pasture by the feet, ought to 
be taken into consideration. 

The third mode of grazing appears to be the least objection- 
able. The horses have no field labor on Sunday ; if the pas- 
ture be good, the weather favorable, and the horses not 
fatigued, they are better at grass than in the house. 

In some places the road-horses are sometimes put to grass 
on Sunday. This practice has nothing apparently to recom- 
mend it. The weekly work of these horses in general de- 
mands the rest which Sunday brings ; and if they travel at a 
fast pace, as all coach-horses do now, they are apt to eat so 
much grass, and carry such a load in their bellies, that on 
Monday they are easily over-worked. The breathing is im- 
peded, unless the horses purge, which few do. They often 
come from grass as haggard and dejected as if they had done 
twice their ordinary work the day before. 



SERVICE. 

A change of lodging, or of diet, is often a cause of disease. 
When a fresh horse is procured, it is well to know how he has 
been treated during the previous month ; if he is a valuable 



SERVICE. 



169 




animal, he will certainly be worth this inquiry. Horses that 
come from a dealer have probably been standing in a warm 
stable, well-clothed, well-groomed, highly fed, and seldom 
exercised. They have fine glossy 
coats, are lusty, 
spirits; but 
their flesh is 
soft and flabby. 
They are unfit, 
for fast work ; 
they are easily 
heated by exer- 
tion, and when 
the least warm, service. 

are very apt to take cold. But, wherever the horse comes 
from, or whatever his condition may be, changes in reference 
to food, temperature, and work, must be effected by slow 
degrees. It is absurd and always pernicious to take a horse 
from the field, and put him in a warm stable, and on rich 
food all at once ; it is no less erroneous to take him from 
a warm to a cold stable, or to demand exertion to which he 
has not been trained. 

When the horse's history cannot be traced, both his work and 
his diet should at first be moderate. More of either than he 
has been accustomed to, will do more harm than less of either. 
It may, however, soon be ascertained by trying him whether he 
has been doing much work ; if fit for work, he may be fed in 
proportion. The temperature of the stable had better be 
warmer than colder. If too warm, the horse will perspire ; his 
coat will be wet in different places, especially in the morning 



170 SERVICE. 

when the stables are first opened. If it be too cold, his coat 
will be roughened, and become dim, and the horse will catch 
cold, evidence of which will be given by a cough. 

The work of some horses exposes them much to the weather. 
Those employed in street-coaches, in the carriages of medical 
men, all those that have to stand in the weather, can never do 
so with safety until they have been seasoned. In the cold rainy 
season, many are destroyed, and many more endangered by in- 
judicious exposure. Wet .weather is the most pernicious ; yet 
it is not the rain alone that does the mischief. If the horse is 
kept in motion, and afterwards perfectly and quickly dried, or 
is kept in motion till he is dry, he suffers no injury. His coat 
may be bleached till it is like a dead fur ; but the horse does 
not catch cold. If he is allowed to stand at rest with his coat 
drenched in the rain, the surface of the body rapidly loses its 
heat, there being no stimulus to the formation of it ; the blood 
circulates slowly, accumulates internally, and oppresses vital 
organs, especially the lungs ; the legs become excessively cold 
and benumbed ; the horse can hardly use them, and, when put 
in motion, he strikes one against the other. Exposure, when it 
deprives the body of heat in this way, is a fruitful source of in- 
flamed lungs, of thoracic influenza, catarrh, and founder. When 
the skin is wet, or the air very cold, the horse should, if possible, 
be kept in motion, which will preserve him, however little he 
may have been accustomed to exposure. 

Horses that have been kept in warm stables, and never out 
but in fair weather, are in most danger. If they cannot be kept 
in constant motion, they must be prepared before they are ex- 
posed. If they commence work in summer, or early in the 
autumn, they will be fully inured to the weather before the worst 



SERVICE. ltl 

part of winter arrives. But if they commence in winter, they 
should be out for only one or two hours at a time ; in good days 
they may be out longer, no one being able to give a precise rule 
as to the length of time appropriate, as it varies with the con- 
dition of the animal, the weather, and the work required. It 
should shorten with the wetness or coldness of the weather, and 
the tenderness of the animal. If he must run rapidly from one 
place to another, and wait perhaps half an hour at each, he is 
in more danger than if the pace were slower, and the time of 
waiting shorter ; and if moved about constantly, or every ten 
minutes, he suffers less injury than if he was standing still. After 
a time he becomes inured to exposure, and may be safely trusted 
in the severest weather. 

Repeated and continued application of cold to the surface of 
the body stimulates the skin to produce an extra supply of heat. 
The exposure of two or three days is not sufficient to rouse the 
skin to this effort. It is always throwing off a large quantity 
of heat; but it is several days, and with many horses several 
weeks, before the skin can assume activity sufficient to meet the 
demands of a cold or wet atmosphere. Ultimately, it becomes 
so vigorous that the application of cold, whether wet or dry, is 
almost instantly followed by an increased production of heat. 
To this, however, there are limits. By exposure, gradually 
increasing in length and frequency, the system may be able to 
maintain the temperature at a comfortable warmth for three or 
four successive hours, even when the horse is standing at rest 
in wet or cold. But he cannot endure this beyond a certain 
point. Exhaustion and emaciation succeed, in spite of all the 
food the horse can eat. The formation of so much heat con- 
sumes the nutriment that ought to produce vigor for work. 



1*72 SERVICE. 

Hence, working horses kept very much in very cold stables are 
lean and dull. 

It is chiefly the horses that have to stand in the weather, 
which require preparation for exposure. Bleeding, purging, 
and other means, which debilitate or emaciate, are never neces- 
sary in this process. Hunting, stage-coach, and cart-horses 
seldom require any preparation for exposure, as they are in 
motion from the time of leaving the stable till their return. 
They only require to be well and quickly dried when wet. 

New horses are very liable to have the skin injured by the 
harness. The friction of the saddle, collar, or traces, pro- 
duces excoriation. In some horses this is altogether unavoid- 
able, especially when they are in poor condition. Their skin 
is tender, and a little chafing exposes the quick. In all 
horses it is some time before the skin thickens, and becomes 
sufficiently callous to carry the harness without injury. The 
time required to undergo this change varies materially, and 
cannot be much shortened by any means. Attention to the 
harness, however, will frequently prevent excoriation. After 
every journey, the neck should be closely examined. If 
there be any spot, however little abraded, hot and tender when 
pinched, that part of the collar which produced it should be cut 
out before the next journey. The guard, or safe, is a useful 
article to prevent galls of this kind. It is merely a thin slip 
of soft leather, covering the seat of the collar. It obviates 
friction, and prevents injurious pressure from any little protuber- 
ance or hardness in the stuffing of the collar. On the first or 
second journey a new horse often comes in with his neck some- 
what inflamed ; it is hot, tender, and covered with pimples. 
In the stables it is said to be fired. A solution of common 



SERVICE. 173 

salt in water is commonly applied, and it serves to allay the 
inflammation ; it should be applied whenever the collar is re- 
moved. Tumors, containing bloody water, frequently rise on 
the neck. They should be opened immediately, emptied, and 
kept opened for a few days. The piece must be taken out 
of the collar, and a safe used. On a hilly road the lower part 
of the collar often galls the neck seriously, in spite of any 
alteration in the stuffing. A broad strap attached to the 
collar, and passing over the windpipe, is a good remedy. 
The strap should be two inches broad, and drawn tightly 
enough to keep the collar steady, and make it stand nearly 
upright. It should be adjusted before the head is put on the 
bearing reins, and should be worn till the neck is quite sound. 
A broad breast-band may also be substituted for the neck 
collar, till the neck and shoulders get well. A horse will pull 
nearly as well in this as in the collar and hames. When the 
traces, crupper, or pad, threaten or produce excoriation, they 
must be kept off by cushions placed behind, before, or at each 
side of the part injured. 

The back requires nearly as much care as the neck. A new 
saddle is objectionable for a new horse, particularly when he 
has to travel far under a heavy rider. A tender back may be 
hardened by frequent use of the saddle and a light weight. 
The horse may stand saddled in the stable, and saddled when 
he goes to exercise. When the back is hot, and the skin dis- 
posed to rise in tumors, the saddle should remain on till the 
back becomes cool. Slacken the girths, raise the saddle for a 
moment, and then replace it. Its weight prevents tumors ; 
excoriation and firing must be treated as on the neck. 
Always let the pommel of the saddle be dry before it is again 



174 SERVICE. 

used, and put it on half an hour before the horse is to be 
mounted. 

Horses, from whom extraordinary exertions are not de- 
manded, and those that are never expected or required to do 
all that a horse is capable of doing, stand in little need of 
inurement to work, and it is seldom that any is intentionally 
given. When a saddle or draught-horse is purchased, he is 
often put to his work at once, without any preparation. He 
is treated as if he were as able for the work as it is possible to 
make him. So long as the work is slow and not very labori- 
ous, he may perform it well enough ; but this system will not 
do for full work, whether fast or slow. If the horse has been 
idle for a month or two, he is weak. It matters little that he 
is plump and in good spirits. He may be able to draw a 
load of twenty or thirty hundred-weight with ease, and per- 
haps to draw it a considerable distance ; but on the next day 
he is sore all over, stiff, feeble, dull, almost unable to carry 
his own weight. If the same work be exacted day after day, 
the horse loses flesh, and at last becomes unfit for any work. 
But if the work be less severe at first, and gradually increases 
from week to week, the horse at last acquires strength and 
endurance greater, perhaps, than he ever before possessed. He 
is then able to do with ease as much in a week as would have 
completely knocked him up at the beginning. For slow, 
moderate work, this is all the preparation which the horse 
needs. At first, let it be very gentle ; and the weight he is to 
carry or draw, and the distance he is to travel, may be in- 
creased as he is found able to bear it. In preparing the horse 
for hunting, racing, or coaching, the treatment must be some- 
what different. 



SHOEING. 



H5 



SHOEING. 

There is hardly any other class of mechanics who combine 
so much ignorance of the principles on which their art is 
founded, with so much conceit of their knowledge, as do or- 
dinary horse-shoers ; and it should be one of the first duties 
of the horse-owner to inform himself of the nature and struc- 
ture of the horse's foot, the reason why shoeing is necessary at 
all, what parts of the foot it protects, what is the best form 
of shoe to effect the purpose, how it may be best fastened to 
the foot, and how often it should be removed. 

To illustrate these important points, cuts are here intro- 
duced, showing the construction of the horse's foot. 

Our first one shows the ground surface of the hoof prepared 
for receiving a shoe ; and marks very distinctly the difference 
between the curvature of the outer and inner quarters. 

The hoof is divided into 
horny crust or wall, sole, and 
frog. The horny crust is se- 
creted by the numerous blood- 
-vessels of that soft protruding 
band which encircles the upper 
edge of the hoof, immediately 
/ c % beneath the termination of the 
hair ; and is divided into toe, 
quarters, heels, and bars. Its 
GEotrio) surface op the hoop. texture is insensible, but elas- 

a. The toe— rasped away to receive the turned-up shoe, a 1. The inner toe. a 2. 
The outer toe. 5 1. The inner quarter. 6 2. The outer quarter, c 1. The inner heel. 
c 2. The outer heel. d. d. d. The sole. e. e. The crust or wall of the hoof. /. /. 
The bars. g. g. The commissures, h. k. I. The frog. h. The part immediately under 
the navicular joint, fc. The oval cleft of the frog, 
cleft. i> i. The bulbs of the heels. 




I. The elevated boundary of the 



176 



SHOEING. 



tic throughout its whole extent ; and, yielding to the weight of 
the horse, allows the horny sole to descend, whereby much in- 
convenient concussion of the internal parts of the foot is avoided. 
But if a large portion of the circumference of the foot is fettered 
by iron and nails, it is plain that that portion, at least, cannot 
expand as before ; and the beautiful and efficient apparatus for 
effecting this necessary elasticity, being no longer allowed to 
act by reason of these restraints, becomes altered in structure ; 
and the continued operation of the same causes, in the end, 
circumscribes the elasticity to those parts alone where no nails 
have been driven ; giving rise to a train of consequences de- 
structive to the soundness of the foot, and fatal to the usefulness 
of the horse. 

The toe of the fore foot is the thickest and strongest portion 
of the hoof, and is in consequence less expansive than any other 

part, and there- 
fore better calcu- 
lated to resist the 
effects of the nails 
and the shoe. The 
thickness of the 
horn gradually 
diminishes to- 
ward the quarters 
and heels, particu- 

a. Is a broad flat mass of horn, projecting upward into the middle of the elastic cush- 
ion, and called "the frog stay." b, b. Are two horny projections rising into the 
cavity of the hoof formed by the commissures, c. c. Are portions of the same projec- 
tions, and are situated just under the two ends of the navicular bone, and mark the 
point on either side where diminution in thernatural elasticity of the fatty frog would 
be felt with the greatest severity by the navicular joint ; for under the most favorable 
circumstances, the quantity of cushion between these points and the navicular joint 
cannot be very large ; and hence the importance of our doing all we can to preserve 
its elasticity as long as possible. 




THE HOOF OP THE HORSE. 



SHOEING. 



m 



larly on the inner side of the foot, whereby the power of yield- 
ing and expanding to the weight of the horse is proportionably 
increased, clearly indicating that those parts cannot be nailed 
to an unyielding bar of iron, without a most mischievous inter- 
ference with the natural functions of the foot. In the hind foot, 
greater thickness of horn will be found at the quarters and heels, 
than in the fore foot. This difference in the thickness of horn 
is beautifully adapted to the inequality of the weight which 
each has to sustain, the force with which it is applied, and the 
portions of the hoof upon which it falls. 

The toe of the fore foot encounters the combined force and 
weight of the fore hand and body, and consequently in a state 
of nature is exposed to considerable wear and tear, and calls 
for greater strength and substance of horn than is needed by 
any portion of the hind foot, where the duty of supporting the 
hinder parts alone is distributed on the quarters and heels of 
both sides of the foot. 

The bars are 
continuations o f 
the wall, reflected 
at the heel towards 
the centre of the 
foot, where they 
meet in a p o i n t , 
leaving a triangu- 
lar space between 

A SECTION OE THE FOOT. tllem f ° r ^ ^°^ 

1. The coronet bone. 2. The coffin hone. 3. The navicular bone. a. The wall. b. 
The sole. c. The cleft of the frog. d. d. The frog. e. e. The fatty frog, or elastic 
cushion. /. The sensitive sole. g. The sensitive frog. h. h. h. Tendons of the mus- 
cles which bend the foot. i. Part of the pastern bone. k. Tc. Tendons of the muscles 
which extend the foot, t The coffin joint, m. The navicular joint. ». The coronary 
substance, o. The sensible laminse, or covering of the coffin bone. 

12 




118 SHOEING. 

The whole inner surface of the horny crust, from the centre 
of the toe to the point where the bars meet, is everywhere lined 
with innumerable narrow, thin, and projecting horny plates, 
which extend in a slanting direction from the upper edge of the 
wall to the line of junction between it and the sole, and possess 
great elasticity. These projecting plates are the means of 
greatly extending the surface of attachment of the hoof to the 
coffin bone, which is likewise covered by a similar arrangement 
of projecting plates, but of a highly vascular and sensitive cha- 
racter; and these, dovetailing with the horny projections 
above named, constitute a union combining strength and elas- 
ticity in a wonderful degree. 

The horny sole covers the whole interior surface of the foot 
excepting the frog. In a well-formed foot it presents an arched 
appearance, and possesses considerable elasticity, by virtue of 
which it ascends and descends, as the weight above is either 
suddenly removed from it, or forcibly applied to it. This de- 
scending property of the sole calls for one especial consideration 
in directing the form of the shoe ; for, if the shoe be so formed 
that the horny sole rests upon it, it cannot descend lower ; and 
the sensitive sole above, becoming squeezed between the edges 
of the coffin bone and the horn, produces inflammation, and 
perhaps abscess. The effect of this squeezing of the sensitive 
sole is most commonly witnessed at the angle of the inner heel, 
where the descending heel of the coffin bone, forcibly pressing 
the vascular sole upon the horny sole, contuses a small blood- 
vessel, and produces what is called a corn, but which is, in fact, 
a bruise. 

The horny frog occupies the greater part of the triangular 
space between the bars, and extends from the hindermost part 



SHOEING. H9 

of the foot to the centre of the sole, just over the point where 
the bars meet, but is united to them only at their upper edge ; 
the sides remain unattached and separate, and form the channel 
called the commissures. 

If we carefully observe the form and size in the frog in the 
foot of a colt of from four to five years old, at its first shoeing, 
and then note the changes which it undergoes as the shoeings 
are repeated, we shall soon be convinced that a visible departure 
from a state of health and nature is taking place. At first it 
will be found large and full, with considerable elasticity ; the 
cleft oval in form, open, and expanding, with a continuous, 
well-defined, and somewhat elevated boundary ; the bulbs at the 
heels fully developed, plump, and rounded ; and the whole mass 
occupying about one-sixth of the circumference of the foot. By 
degrees the fulness and elasticity will be observed to have 
diminished ; the bulb at the heels will shrink, and lose their 
plumpness ; the cleft will become narrower, its oval form disap- 
pear, the back part of its boundary give way, and it will dwindle 
into a narrow crack, extended back between the wasted, or 
perhaps obliterated, bulbs, presenting only the miserable remains 
of a frog, such as may be seen in the feet of most horses long 
accustomed to be shod. 

The bones proper to the foot are three in number, — viz., the 
coffin bone, the navicular bone, and part of the coronet bone ; 
they are contained within the hoof, and combine to form the 
coffin joint ; but the smallest of them, the navicular bone, is of 
far more importance as connected* with the subject of shoeing, 
than either of the others ; for upon the healthy condition of this 
bone, and the joint formed between it and the tendon, which 
passes under it to the coffin bone, and is called the navicular 
joint, mainly depends the usefulness of the horse to man. 



180 SHOEING. 

This small bone, which in a horse sixteen hands high mea- 
sures only two and a quarter inches in its longest diameter, 
three-fourths of an inch at the widest part of its shorter diameter, 
and half an inch in thickness in the centre, its thickest part, has 
the upper and under surfaces and part of one of the sides over- 
laid with a thin coating of gristle, and covered by a delicate 
secreting membrane, very liable upon the slightest injury to 
become inflamed ; it is so placed in the foot as to be continually 
exposed to danger, being situated across the hoof, behind the 
coffin bone, and immediately under the coronet bone ; whereby 
it is compelled to receive nearly the whole weight of the horse 
each time that the opposite foot is raised from the ground. 

The coffin bone consists of a body and wings ; and is fitted 
into the hoof, which it closely resembles in form. Its texture 
is particularly light and spongy, arising from the quantity of 
canals or tubes that traverse its substance in every direction, 
affording to numerous blood-vessels and nerves a safe passage 
to the sensitive and vascular parts surrounding it; while the 
unyielding nature of the bone effectually protects them from 
compression or injury, under every variety of movement of the 
horse. 

In an unshod foot, the front and sides of the coffin bone are 
deeply furrowed and roughened, to secure the firmer attachment 
of the vascular membranous structure, by which the bone is 
clothed ; but in the bone of a foot that has been frequently shod, 
the appearance is greatly changed, the furrows and roughness 
giving place to a comparatively smooth surface. This change 
is probably produced by the shoe limiting, if not destroying, the 
expansive power of that part of the horn to which it is nailed ; 
whereby a change of structure in the membrane itself, as well as 



SHOEING. 181 

absorption of the attaching portions of the bone, is induced ; for 
it is an invariable law of the animal economy not to continue 
to unemployed structures the same measure of efficient repara- 
tion that is extended to parts constantly engaged in performing 
their allotted tasks. The shoe restricts or prevents expansion ; 
while nature, as the secret influence is called, immediately sets 
to work to simplify the apparatus for producing the expansion, 
which art has thus rendered impracticable, and substitutes for 
it a new structure, less finely organized, but admirably suited 
to the altered condition of the parts. 

The wings extend from the body of the bone directly back- 
ward, and support the lateral cartilage of the foot. 

The sensitive sole, or, as it is sometimes called, the fleshy sole, 
is about the eighth of an inch thick, and is almost entirely made 
up of blood-vessels and nerves ; it is one of the most vascular 
and sensitive parts of the body, and is attached to the lower 
edge of the sensitive covering of the coffin bone, to the bars, 
and point of the frog, and also with great firmness to the whole 
of the arched under-surface of the coffin bone. 

The sensitive frog includes not only the part corresponding 
to the sensitive sole, but also the peculiar spongy elastic sub- 
stance which intervenes between it and the navicular joint, and 
fills the space between the cartilages. The proper sensitive 
frog is thicker, and less finely organized, than the sensitive sole, 
possessing fewer blood-vessels and nerves. 

It is a common, but very erroneous, opinion, that the shape 
of the perfect foot is circular, or very nearly so. This induces 
most smiths to endeavor to reduce the foot to that shape as soon 
as possible. There are very few things in nature so little varied 
as the form of the ground surface of horses' feet ; for whether the 



182 SHOEING. 

hoof be high-heeled and upright, or low-heeled and flat, large or 
small, broad or narrow, the identical form of ground-surface is 
maintained in each, so long as it is left entirely to nature's 
guidance. The outer quarter, back to the heel, is curved con- 
siderably and abruptly outward, while the inner quarter is 
carried back in a gradual and easy curve. The advantage of 
this form is so obvious, that it is strange that any interference 
should ever be attempted with it. The enlarged outer quarter 
extends the base, and increases the hold of the foot upon the 
ground ; while the straighter inner quarter lessens the risk of 
striking the foot against the opposite leg. 

The inclination of the front of the horny crust of' the foot 
should be at an angle of about forty-five degrees. If the foot 
is much steeper than this, it is very liable to contract ; while, 
if it is much more slanting, it constitutes what is called 
the " oyster shell" foot, in which there is an undue flatness of 
the sole, and a tendency to pumiced feet. 

Before removing the old shoes, care should be taken to 
raise all the clinches of the nails to prevent injury to the 
crust, and to avoid giving pain to the horse ; even after 
clinches are raised, if the shoes cannot be easily drawn off, 
those nails which seem to hold most firmly should be punched, 
or drawn out, that the shoe may be removed without injury to 
the hoof, and without weakening the nail -hold for the new 
shoeing. 

The shoe being removed, the edge of the crust should be 
well rasped to remove so much of the horn as would have been 
worn away by the contact with the ground, had it been un- 
shod. In no case should the rasp be used on the surface of 
the hoof, except to make the necessary depressions for the 



SHOEING. 183 

clinches, after the new shoe has been put on, and to shape the 
hoof below the line of the clinches of the nails. The hoof, 
above this line, will inevitably be injured by such treatment, 
which is one of the most fruitful sources of brittleness of the 
horn, which often results in "sand-crack." 

The operation of paring out the horse's foot is a matter re- 
quiring both skill and judgment, and is, moreover, a work of 
some labor, when properly performed. It will be found that 
the operator errs much oftener by removing too little than 
too much ; at least it is so with the parts which ought to be 
removed, which are almost as hard and unyielding as flint, and 
in their most favorable state, require considerable exertion to 
cut through. 

No general rule can be given applicable to the paring out 
of the feet Of all horses, or even of the feet of the same horse 
at all times. It would be evidently unwise, for example, to 
pare the sole as thin in a hot, dry, season, when the roads are 
broken up, and strewed with loose stones, as would be proper 
in a moderately wet one, when the roads are well bound and 
even ; for, in the case first named, the sole is in constant danger 
of being bruised by violent contact with loose stones, and 
therefore, needs a thicker layer of horn for its protection; 
while the latter case offers the most favorable surface that the 
greater part of our horses ever have to travel upon, advantage 
of which should be taken for a thorough paring out of the 
sole, in order that the internal parts of the foot may derive the 
full benefit accruing from an elastic and descending sole ; a 
condition of things very essential to the due performance of 
their separate functions. To take another illustration : horn 
grows very freely, especially toward the toe in horses with 



184 SHOEING, 

upright feet and high heels ; and such are always benefited by 
having the toe shortened, the heels lowered, and the sole well 
pared out; whereas in horses with flat feet and low heels, 
horn grows sparingly, and the toe of such feet being always 
weak, admits of very little shortening. Such heels being 
already too low, they should scarcely be touched with the 
rasp ; and the sole presents such a small quantity of dead 
horn, that the knife should be used with great discretion. 

The corners formed by the junction of the crust and bars 
should be well pared out, particularly on the inside ; for this 
is the common seat of corn, and any accumulation of horn in 
this situation must increase the risk of bruising the sensitive 
sole between the inner part or heel of the coffin bone and the 
horny sole. Little, if anything, is gained by allowing the 
bars to project beyond the surface of the sole ; the power of 
resisting contraction cannot possibly be increased by this 
arrangement, and the projecting rim is left exposed to the 
danger of being broken and bruised by contact with stones 
and other hard substances ; and the method is further attended 
with the disadvantages of making the cleaning out of these 
corners a work of considerable ingenuity with so unwieldly an 
instrument as a common drawing-knife. It is much preferable 
to pare them down to a level with the sole, or very nearly so ; 
avoiding, however, every approach to what is styled ' opening 
out the heels," a most reprehensible practice, which means 
cutting away the sides of the bars, so as to show an apparent 
increase of width between the heels, which may for the time 
deceive the eye, but is in reality a mere deception, purchased 
at the expense of impaired powers of resistance in the bars 
and ultimate contraction of the feet. It is palpable that the 



SHOEING. 185 

removal of any portion from the sides of the bars must diminish 
their substance, and render them weaker, and consequently 
less able to resist contraction. 

The frog should never be cut or pared, except in very rare 
cases of horses with unusually fast-growing frogs. The first 
stroke of the knife removes the thin horny covering altogether, 
and lays bare an under surface, totally unfitted, from its moist, 
soft texture, for exposure either to the hard ground or the 
action of the air, in consequence of which exposure it soon 
becomes dry and shrinks; then follow cracks, the edge of 
which turning outward forms rags; these rags are removed 
by the smith at the next shoeing, by which means another 
similar surface is exposed, and another foundation laid for 
other rags ; and this process continues until finally the pro- 
truding, plump, elastic cushion, interposed by nature between 
the navicular joint and the ground, and so essential to its 
preservation from injury, is converted by this senseless inter- 
ference into the dry, shrunk, unyielding apology for a frog, to 
be seen in the foot of almost every horse that has been regu- 
larly shod for a few years. The frog is provided within itself 
with two very efficient modes of throwing off any superfluous 
horn with which it may be troubled, and it is very unwise in 
man to interfere with them. The first and most common of 
these modes is the separation from the surface of the frog of 
small, bran-like scales, which becoming dry, fall off in a kin(} 
of whitish scurf, not unlike the dust that adheres to Turkey 
figs ; the other, which is upon a large scale, and of rarer oc- 
currence, is sometimes called "casting the frog." A thick 
layer of frog separates itself in a body, and shells off as deep 
as a common paring with a knife ; but this very important 



186 SHOEING. 

difference is to be noted between the two operations — that 
nature never removes the horny covering until she has pro- 
vided another horny covering beneath, so that although a 
large portion of the frog may have been removed, there still 
remains behind a perfect frog, smaller, it is true, but covered 
with horn, and in every way fitted to sustain exposure ; while 
the knife, on the contrary, removes the horny covering, but 
is unable to substitute any other in its stead. The frog should, 
therefore, be left to itself; nature will remove the superfluous 
horn, and the rags do no harm, since, if they are unmolested, 
they will soon wholly disappear. 

The shoe should possess these general features : first, it should 
be, for ordinary work, rather heavy, in order that it may not 
be bent by contact with hard, uneven roads ; second, it should 
be wide in the web, and of equal thickness and width from the 
toe to the heel, that it may as much as possible protect the 
sole, without altering the natural position of the foot ; third, it 
should be well drawn in at the heels, that it may rest on the 
bars, and extend to the outer edge of the crust on the outside, 
and reach beyond the bar nearly to the frog, so that there may 
be no danger of its pressing on the "corn -place," or angles 
between the bar and the crust ; and fourth, it should in no 
part extend beyond the outer edge of the crust, lest it 
strike against the opposite leg when the horse is travel- 
ing, or be stepped on by another horse, or be drawn off by a 
heavy soil. 

Such a shoe, and its position on the foot, is shown in the 
cut opposite. 

The shoe should be made as nearly of this form as the 
shape of the foot will allow ; but it is always to be borne in 



SHOEING. 



18T 



mind, that the shoe is intended for the foot, and not the 
foot for the shoe, and that it is therefore peculiarly proper 
to make the shoe to fit the 
natural form of the foot, in- 
stead, as is too often the case, 
of paring, burning, and rasp- 
ing the foot until it fits the 
shoe, which is made accord- 
ing to the smith's notion of 
what the form of the horse's 
foot should be. No amount 
of paring can bring the foot 
of a horse to an unnatural 
figure, and also leave it 
sound and safe for work and use. 




THE POSITION OP THE SHOE. 



This cut represents the foot with the shoe rendered transparent, showing what parts of 
the foot are protected and covered by bringing in the heels of the shoes, a, a, a, the 
crust, with the shoe closely fitted all around, b, b, the bars, protected by the shoe. 
c, e, the heels, supported by the shoe, d, the situation of corns protected from injury. 

The truth really is, that the shape of the shoe cannot by 
possibility influence the shape of the foot ; for the foot being 
elastic, it expands to the weight of the horse in precisely the 
same degree, whether it is resting upon the most open or the 
most contracted shoe. It is the situation of the nails, and not 
the shape of the shoe, that determines the form of the foot. 
If the nails be placed in the outside quarter and toe, leaving 
the heels and quarters on the inside, which are the most ex- 
pansive portions, free, no shape which we can give to the 
shoe can of itself change the form of the foot. It must not, 
however, be inferred from this, that the shape of the shoe is 
therefore of no importance ; quite the contrary being the case, 



188 SHOEING. 

as has been already shown. As the shape of the foot is in no 
degree changed by the form of shoe, that form should mani- 
festly be adopted which produces the greatest number of ad- 
vantages with the fewest disadvantages. 

A small clip at the point of the toe is very desirable, as 
preventing displacement of the shoe backwards ; it need not 
be driven up hard, as it is simply required as a check or stay. 
The shoe should be sufficiently long to fully support the angles 
at the heels, and not so short, as is too often the case, that a 
little wear imbeds the edge of it in the horn at these parts. 
The foot surface of the shoe should always have a good flat 
even space left all around for the crust to bear upon ; for it 
must be remembered, that the crust sustains the whole weight 
of the horse, and should therefore have a perfectly even bear- 
ing everywhere around the shoe. In this space the nail-holes 
should be punched ; and not, as is too generally the case, 
partly in it, and partly in the seating. In what is technically 
called "back-holing the shoe," which means completing the 
openings of nail-holes on the foot surface, great care should be 
taken to give them an outward direction, so as to allow the 
points of the nails to be brought out low down in the crust. 
The remainder of the foot surface should be carefully seated 
out particularly around the elevated toe, where it might other- 
wise press inconveniently upon the sole, and the seating should 
be carried on fairly to the point where the crust and bars 
meet, in order that there may be no pressure in the seat of 
corns ; the chance of pressure in this situation will be still fur- 
ther diminished by beveling off the inner edge of the heels with 
a rasp. 

The ground surface should be perfectly flat, with a groove 



SHOEING. 189 

running round the outer edge, just under the plain surface, upon 
which the crust bears. The principal use of this groove is to 
receive the heads of the nails that secure the shoe, and prevent 
their bending or breaking off; it is further useful in increasing 
the hold of the shoe upon the ground, and should be carried 
back to the heels. 

In fitting the shoe on the foot, it should never while red-hot 
be burned into its place, as this would so heat the sensitive sole 
as to produce a serious derangement of its parts ; but it may 
with safety be touched lightly to the foot, that by a slight 
burning it may indicate those parts where the foot needs paring; 
indeed, it is necessary to pursue this course in order to make 
the shoe so exactly fit the foot that there will be no danger of 
its moving sufficiently to loosen the hold of the nails. The shoe 
should be made with steel in front, this being sloped backwards 
to a line running at right angles with the upper slope of the 
hoof. Old shoes being always worn to about this form, new 
ones should be so made, and the steel will prevent their being 
unduly worn. 

The shoe having been so fitted that the foot exactly touches 
it in every part, the next step is to nail it fast to the hoof. 
Upon the number and situation of the nails which secure it 
depends the amount of disturbance that the natural functions 
of the foot are destined to sustain from the shoe. If the nails 
are numerous, and placed back in the quarters and heels, no 
form of shoe, however perfect, can save the foot from contrac- 
tion and navicular disease. If, on the contrary, they are few, 
and placed in the outside quarter and toe, leaving the inside 
quarter and heels free to expand, no form of shoe is so bad that 
it can, from defective form alone, produce contraction of the 
foot. 



190 SHOEING. 

Yarious experiments, which have been made for the purpose 
of ascertaining how few nails are absolutely necessary under 
ordinary circumstances for retaining a shoe securely in its place, 
have satisfactorily established that five nails are amply sufficient 
for the fore-shoes and seven for the hind. The nails should not 
be driven high up in the crust, but brought out as soon as pos- 
sible ; they should also be very lightly driven up before the 
clinchers are turned down, and not, as is generally the case, 
forced up with all the power which the smith can bring to bear 
upon them with his hammer. The clinches should not be 
rasped away too fine, but turned down broad and firm. The 
practice of rasping the whole surface of the hoof after the 
clinches have been turned down, should never be allowed ; it 
destroys the covering provided by nature as a protection against 
the too rapid evaporation of the moisture of the hoof, and 
causes the horn to become dry and brittle. 

The fear, very commonly entertained, that a shoe will be cast 
almost at every step, unless it is held to the foot by eight or 
nine nails driven high up into the crust, is utterly groundless, 
as both theory and practice concur in asserting. If the pre- 
sence of a nail in the crust were a matter of no moment, and 
two or three more than are necessary were merely useless, no 
great reason would exist for condemning the common practice 
of using too many nails ; but it is far otherwise ; — the nails 
separate the fibres of the horn, which never by any chance be- 
come united again, but continue apart and unclosed, until by 
degrees they grow down with the rest of the hoof, and are 
finally, after repeated shoeings, removed by the knife. 

If the clinches chance to rise, they must be at once replaced,, 
as such rising imparts to the nails a freedom of motion which 



SHOEING. 191 

is certain to enlarge the size of the holes ; and this mischief is 
often increased by the violent wrenching from side to side which, 
the shoe undergoes in the process of removal by the smith. As 
these holes cannot possibly grow down and be removed under 
three shoeings, it will be found that even with seven nails the 
crust must always have twenty- one of these separations existing 
in it at the same time ; and as they are often from various causes 
extended into each other, they necessarily keep it in a brittle, 
unhealthy state, and materially interfere with the security of 
the future nail-hold. 

By the mode of fastening above advocated the struggle be- 
tween the expansion of the foot and the resistance of the shoe 
is entirely overcome ; the outer side of the foot, being the only 
part nailed to the shoe, carries the whole shoe with it at every 
expansion ; while the inner side, being unattached, expands in- 
dependently of it, whereby all strain upon the nails is avoided, 
and the foot is left, with respect to its power of expansion, as 
nearly as possible in a state of nature. 

The position of the hind foot and the nature of its office 
render it less liable to injury than the fore foot, and conse- 
quently it less frequently lames. As, however, disease of the 
navicular bone of this foot is by no means impossible, care 
should be taken to guard against its contraction by interfering 
as little as possible with the expansive power of the foot ; and 
this is best done by keeping the nails on the inside as far re- 
moved from the heel as convenient, placing four nails in the. 
outer and three in the inner side of the shoe. The holes in the 
inner side should be punched closer together, and kept more 
towards the toe than those on the outside, which should be 
more spread out, as affording greater security of hold to 



192 



SHOEING. 



the foot. The shoe should be carefully fitted to the hoof all 
round, particularly at the heels, which are too often left without 
any support whatever ; and the mischievous custom of turning 
down the outer heel only must be avoided, because it throws 
the weight entirely upon the inner quarter, which is the part 
least able to bear it, and causes much uncomfortable strain 
to the fetlock joint above. Calkins, even though they are 
turned down of perfectly even length on each side, (which, how- 
ever, is rarely done,) are objectionable appendages, and had 
better be dispensed with, except, perhaps, for very heavy draft, 
where their ends by entering the ground may prevent the foot 
from slipping backwards, and may thus enable the toe to obtain 
a firmer hold. 

The form of shoe here referred to, and the position of the 
nail-holes are shown in the cut annexed. 

Before leaving this subject it 
should be remarked, that con- 
tracted feet— that is, feet that 
have shrunken and become nar- 
row at the heels, and of which the 
frog has become materially re- 
I duced in size,— are often, and 
doubtless most frequently, caused 
by inflammation arising from im- 
proper shoeing. It is the custom 
of many smiths to " set the shoes 
well off at the heels;" and to 

a a The heels of an even thickness with the rest of the shoe. b. b. Show the points 
'at which the heels of the hoof terminated, t. c. The seating carried back, so as to 
clear the angles at the heels, and leave the seat of corns free from pressure, d The 
nail-holes placed in the flat surface which supports the crust, where they should 
always be. e. The hindermost nail of the inner side at the inner toe, whereby the 
whole of the quarter and heel are left free to expand. , 




THE PROPER FORM OP A SHOE. 



ADMINISTERING MEDICINE. 193 

carry the seating or level of the upper side of the shoes so far 
back that the heels, instead of resting on a flat surface, as they 
would on a properly fitted shoe, rest on the slopes of the seat- 
ing, which are in this respect simply two inclined planes, so 
placed that, at each step taken by the horse, his heels must be 
pressed together, until a greater or less contraction is made 
manifest, but at too late a period to enable us to remedy the 
evil ; for there is no means by which this contraction of the foot 
can be cured — although, when it exists only to a slight extent, 
the internal portions of the foot will sometimes accommodate 
themselves to its new form. So far as disease is the result of 
bad shoeing, it can be obviated by so forming the shoe that it 
will afford a sufficient and perfectly secure and level support for 
the heels. 



ADMILTISTEKIK-G MEDICINE. 

The most common form in which medicine is given to the 
horse is by means of the ball, which is an oblong mass of rather 
soft consistence, yet tough enough to retain its shape, and 
wrapped up in thin paper for that purpose. The usual weight 
of the ball is from half an ounce to an ounce, but they may be 
given of a larger size, if they are made longer but not wider. 
Every person in charge of horses should know how to give a 
ball, which is managed either with or without a balling-iron, an 
instrument seldom wanted, and which sometimes occasions con- 
siderable injury to the roof of the horse's mouth. Occasionally, 
a horse cannot be managed by any other means ; but, generally 
speaking, these instruments only furnish an excuse for bad 
management. In giving a ball in the ordinary way, the horse's 
tongue is drawn out of his mouth on the off or right side, and 
13 



194 ADMINISTERING MEDICINE. 

held there firmly with the left hand grasping it as near the root 
as possible, but to a certain extent yielding to the movement 
of the horse's head, so as not absolutely to tear it out. While 
the tongue is thus held, the ball is placed between the fingers 
and thumb of the right hand, extended in a wedge-like or 
conical form, so as to pass as far down the swallow as possible ; 
and the hand in this form, with the arm bared to the shoulder, 
is carried over the root of the tongue till it feels the impedi- 
ment caused by the contraction of the swallow, when the fingers 
leave the ball there, and the hand is withdrawn quickly yet 
smoothly, while at the same moment the tongue is released, and 
the head is held up till the ball is seen to pass down the gullet 
on the left side of the neck, after which the head may be released. 
"When the balling-iron is used, the oval ring of which it is com- 
posed is passed into the mouth, so as to keep it open, being 
first well guarded with tow or cloths wrapped around it ; the 
handle is then held in the left hand, together with the halter, 
so as to steady the head, and yet to keep the horse from biting ; 
and while thus held the hand can be freely carried over the 
tongue, and the ball be deposited in the pharynx. When a 
horse is very determined, it is sometimes necessary to keep the 
iron in the mouth by means of the check-pieces of an ordinary 
bridle buckled to the sides of the oval ring ; but this expedient 
is seldom required if the halter is firmly grasped with the handle 
of the iron. 

In the usual way the horse to be balled is turned around in 
his stall, which prevents his backing away from the person 
in charge ; and if the latter is not tall enough, he may stand 
upon a sound stable-bucket, turned upside down. Balls 
should be recently made, as they soon spoil by keeping ; not 



ADMINISTERING MEDICINE. 195 

only losing their strength, but also becoming so hard as to be 
almost insoluble in the stomach, and frequently passing 
through the bowels nearly as they went into the mouth. 
When hard they are also liable to stick in the horse's gullet. 
If ammonia, or any other strong stimulant, is given in this 
way, the horse should not have his stomach quite empty, but 
should have a little gruel or water just previously ; for if this 
is put off till afterward, the nauseous taste of the ball almost 
always prevents his drinking. When arsenic forms an ingre- 
dient of the ball, it should be given soon after a feed of corn ; 
or a quart or two of gruel should be given instead, just before 
the ball. 

The administration of a drench is a much more trouble- 
some affair than the giving of a ball ; and in almost all cases 
more or less of the dose is wasted. Sometimes, however, a 
liquid medicine is to be preferred, as in colic or gripes, when 
the urgent nature of the symptoms demands a rapidly acting 
remedy, which a ball is not, as it requires time to dissolve ; 
and, besides this, a ball cannot contain any of the spirituous 
cordials. The best instrument for giving a drench is the 
horn of the ox, cut obliquely, so as to form a spout. Bottles 
are sometimes used in an emergency, but their fragile nature 
always renders them dangerous. In giving a drench, the 
tongue is held in the same way as for the delivery of a ball, 
but the head must be more elevated ; the drench is then care- 
fully poured into the throat, after which the tongue is let go, 
but the head still kept up till it is all swallowed. Allowance 
should always be made for some waste in giving a drench. 

In managing horses while in physic, the horse should in 
all cases, if possible, be prepared by bran mashes, given for 



196 ADMINISTERING MEDICINE. 

two or three nights, so as to make the bowels rather loose 
than otherwise, and thus allow the dose to act without undue 
forcing of the impacted fceces backward. If physic is given 
without this softening process, the stomach and bowels pour out 
a large secretion of fluid, which is forced back upon the rectum, 
and met by a solid obstacle which it takes a long time to 
overcome, and during that interval the irritating purge is 
acting upon the lining membrane, and often produces excessive 
inflammation of it. Purging physic should generally be given 
in the middle of the day, after which the horse should remain 
in the stable, and have chilled water as often as he will drink 
it, with bran mashes. By the next morning he will be in a 
condition to be walked out for an hour, which will set the 
bowels acting, if they have not already begun. It is usual to 
tie up the tail with a tape or string, so as to keep it clean. 
The horse should be warmly clothed, and if the physic does 
not act after an hour's walk, he may be gently trotted for a 
short distance, and then taken home ; and if still obstinate, 
he may be exercised again in the afternoon. As soon as the 
physic operates pretty freely, the horse is to be taken into his 
stable, and not stirred out again, under any pretense what- 
ever, for forty-eight hours after it has "set," or, in common 
language, stopped acting. When the purging has ceased, 
the mashes may be continued for twenty-four hours, with a 
little corn added to them, and a quantity of hay. The water, 
during the whole time, should be in small quantities, and 
chilled ; and the clothing should be rather warmer than usual, 
taking great care to avoid draughts of cold air. Every horse 
requires at least a three-day's rest for a dose of physic, in 
order to avoid risk of mischief. 



ADMINISTERING MEDICINE. 19T 

The mode of giving a clyster is now rendered simple 
enough, because a pump and tube are expressly made for the 
purpose ; and it is only necessary to pass the greased end of the 
tube carefully into the rectum, for about eight or nine inches, 
and then pump the liquid up until a sufficient quantity is given. 
From a gallon to six quarts is the average quantity, but in 
colic a much larger amount is required. 

Lotions are applied by means of cloth bandages, if used 
to the legs ; or by a piece of cloth tied over the parts, if to 
any other surface. 

Fomentations are very serviceable to the horse in all recent 
external inflammations ; and it is astonishing what may be 
done by a careful person, with warm water alone, and a good- 
sized sponge. Sometimes, by means of an elastic tube and 
stop-cock, warm water is conducted in a continuous stream 
over an inflamed part, as in severe wounds, etc., in which this 
plan is found wonderfully successful in allaying the irritation, 
which is so likely to occur in the nervous system of the horse. 
A vessel of warm water is placed above the level of the horse's 
back, and a small india-rubber tube leads from it to a sponge 
fixed above the parts, from which the water runs to the ground 
as fast as it is over-filled. This plan can be very easily carried 
out by any person of ordinary ingenuity. 




zSmk^HQ\^ 



The many excellent qualities of the horse 
iHF are accompanied by some defects, which 
occasionally amount to vices. These may in 
|U§J part be attributed to natural temper; for man 
himself scarcely presents more peculiarities of temper and dis- 
position than does the horse. The majority of these disagree- 
able or dangerous habits in the animal now under consideration 
are without doubt attributable to a faulty education. The in- 
structor was ignorant and brutal, and the animal instructed 
becomes obstinate and vicious. It is proposed to mention 
some of the more glaring of these vices, suggesting in connect 
tion with each whatever remedies or palliatives experience has 
suggested. 
(198) 



BAULKING OR JIBBING. 199 

RESTIVENESS. 

This stands in the front rank of all the vicious qualities of 
the horse, being at once the most annoying and the most dan- 
gerous of all. It is the direct and natural result of bad temper 
and worse education ; and, like all other habits based upon na- 
ture and engrained by education, it is inveterate. "Whether 
it develop itself in the form of kicking, rearing, plunging, 
bolting, or in any way that threatens danger to the rider or 
horse, it rarely admits of a cure. The animal may, indeed, to 
a certain extent be subjugated by a determined rider ; or he may 
have his favorites, or form his attachments, and with some par- 
ticular person be comparatively or perfectly manageable ; but 
others cannot long depend upon him, and even his master is 
not always sure of him. 



BAULKING OR JIBBING. 

This species of restiveness is one of the most provoking vices 
of the horse, and it can be successfully combated only by a man 
of the most imperturbable temper. The slightest sign of vexa- 
tion only increases the evil, and makes the animal more and more 
troublesome each time that he refuses his work. Many a thick- 
headed, quick-tempered driver flies into a passion, and beats or 
otherwise abuses his horse, on the least symptom of baulking, 
until the animal becomes utterly worthless from a confirmation 
of the habit. 

As a rule it may be stated, that horses baulk from nervous- 
ness, or unsteadiness of disposition ; if not, indeed, from an 
over-anxiety to perform their work. Nervous, well-bred horses 
are more susceptible to the influences which induce baulking, 



200 BAULKING OR JIBBING. 

than are colder blooded, more indolent ones. A high-mettled 
horse, when carelessly driven, will start suddenly against his 
collar, fail to start his load, draw back from the pain which the 
concussion causes, rush at it again, and again draw back, until 
it becomes impossible for his driver to steady him in his collar 
for a dead pull. If to all this be added a smart cut with the 
whip, and a fiercely spoken word, — with perhaps a blow over 
the nose, or a stone in the ear, — every fear or vicious feeling of 
the horse will be summoned into action, and the animal will 
become entirely unmanageable, requiring to be left for an hour 
or two in his position before he gets sufficiently calm to be in- 
duced to move. There may, occasionally, be a horse which 
cannot be made to draw steadily by the most careful treatment; 
but the cases are exceedingly rare in which gentle treatment 
and firmness — a patient persistence in mild, authoritative com- 
mand, and judicious coaxing — would not either prevent the 
formation of the habit, or cure it when formed. 

The prevention of baulky habits lies with the driver. If 
he jump upon his load, gather up his reins carelessly, flourish 
his whip, or call out wildly to his horse, he will be quite likely 
to start him forward with a jerk which will be of no avail to 
move a heavily laden wagon. The horse thus commences to 
baulk at a heavy load, and after a certain amount of such treat- 
ment, will refuse to draw anything except under the most favor- 
able circumstances. Let any person driving a strange horse, 
with a load that he is not perfectly sure he can start easily, 
proceed according to the following directions, and he may be 
certain that, if the animal be not already a "jibber, "he will not 
make him so, and that if he is one he will have the best chance 
for getting him along without trouble : He should slowly ex- 



BAULKING OR JIBBING. 201 

amine the harness and wagon (partly to accustom the horse to 
his presence,) gather up the reins gently, speaking to the horse 
to prevent his starting, get quietly into his seat, and then, if 
possible, get control of the horse's mouth before allowing him 
to move, so that when he does step off it may be only at a slow 
walk. If by a forward movement of the hands he can be made 
to press very gradually against the collar, and if the whole ope- 
ration is performed in a cool and unexcited manner, there will 
be little difficulty in bringing him to a dead pull, from which 
he will recoil only if the load is a serious tax upon his strength. 

If the first attempt fail, wait until your horse has become 
quiet, and until you have recovered from your own vexation, 
and then try again. It may be necessary to have the assis- 
tance of one or two persons, to start the wagon from behind ; 
but they should not push it until the horse is fairly against the 
collar. 

To cure the habit of baulking is not an easy matter, and it is 
possible only by the kindest treatment. If the horse show fear 
by his excited manner, or, by looking about him wildly, that he 
is expecting a blow, you may be sure that he has received hard 
usage under similar circumstances, and that he must be con- 
vinced by caresses and kind words that you will treat him 
gently. You must recollect that the horse cannot understand 
your language ; and that, while he is confused, he will misin- 
terpret every sign which you may make to him. He has an 
idea of your superior power ; and, in his fear that you will 
exercise it, as bad drivers have done before, to his injury, he 
will not at once feel confidence in your kind intentions. He 
must feel this confidence, whether it take an hour or all day to 
convey it to him, before you can do anything to cure him of 



202 BAULKING OR JIBBING. 

his trick. If you have him harnessed to a light wagon on a 
smooth road where it will afford but little resistance, you may 
by repeated trials convince him that it is a simple, easy matter 
to draw it ; and you should continue to exercise him from day 
to day with the same light load, and afterward increase it 
gradually, until you have trained him to a quiet manner of 
starting, or of going up a hill or elsewhere where he has been 
accustomed to baulk. 

By the same gentle treatment you may start a horse or a 
team that have baulked under the driving of another person. 
Request the driver and all spectators to go to the side of the 
road, and then unfasten the check-reins, hang the reins where 
they will be easily accessible, but so that they may lie loosely 
upon the horses' backs, caress them, and allow them to look 
about and convince themselves that no harm is doing. When 
they have come properly quiet, go to their heads and stand 
directly in front of the worst jibber of the team, so that his nose 
may come against your breast if he start. Turn them gently 
to the right, without allowing them to tighten tbeir traces, and 
after caressing them a little, draw them in the same way to the 
left. Presently turn them to the right, and as you do so, 
bring them slowly against their collars, and let them go. 

Sometimes a horse not often accustomed to baulk, betrays 
a reluctance to move, or a determination not to move. In 
such cases, the cause, if practicable, should always be ascer- 
tained. He may be overtaxed, his withers may be wrung, or 
he may be insupportably galled or pained by the harness. 
Those accustomed to horses know what seemingly trivial cir- 
cumstances occasionally produce this vice. A horse, whose 
shoulders are raw, or have frequently been so, will not start 



BITING. 203 

with a cold collar ; but when the collar has acquired the warmth 
of the parts upon which it presses, he will go without reluc- 
tance. Some determined baulkers have been reformed by 
constantly weariug a false collar, or strip of cloth around the 
shoulders, so that the coldness of the usual collar should never 
be felt ; and others have been cured by keeping the collar on 
night and day, for the animal is not able to lie down completely 
at full length, which the tired horse is always glad to do. When 
a horse baulks, not at starting, but while doing his work, it has 
sometimes been found useful to line the collar with cloth in- 
stead of leather ; the perspiration is readily absorbed, the sub- 
stance pressing upon the shoulder is softer, and it may be far 
more accurately eased off at a tender place. 



BITING. 

This is either the consequence of natural ferocity, or a habit 
acquired from the foolish and teasing play of grooms and 
stable-boys. When a horse is tickled and pinched by thought- 
less and mischievous youths, he will at first pretend to bite his 
tormentors ; by degrees he will proceed further, and actually 
bite them, and very soon after that he will then be the first 
to challenge to the combat, and without provocation will seize 
the first opportunity to grip the careless teaser. At length, 
as the love of mischief is a propensity too easily acquired, this 
war, half playful and half in earnest, becomes habitual to him, 
and degenerates into absolute viciousness. 

It is seldom that any thing can be done in the way of cure. 
Kindness will aggravate the evil, and no degree of severity will 
correct it. Biters have been punished until they have trembled 
in every joint, and were ready to drop, but this treatment 



204 KICKING. 

scarcely ever cures them. The lash is forgotten in an hour, and 
the horse is as ready and determined to repeat the offense as 
before. He appears unable to resist the temptation, and in its 
worst form biting is a species of insanity. 

Prevention, however, is in the power of every proprietor of 
horses. While he insists upon gentle and humane treatment, 
he should systematically forbid this horse-play. 



KICKING. 

This, as a vice, is another consequence of the culpable habit 
of teasing the horse. That which is at first simply an indica- 
tion of annoyance at the 
pinching and tickling of 
the groom, and without 
any design to injure, gradually 
becomes the expression of anger, 
and the effort to do mischief. 
The horse, also, too soon recog- 
nizes the least appearance 
of timidity, and 
takes advantage of 
the discovery. 

Some horses acquire, from mere irritability and fidgetiness, 
a habit of kicking at the stall or the bail, and particularly at 
night. The neighboring horses are disturbed, and the kicker 
gets swelled hocks, or some more serious injury. This is a 
habit very difficult to correct, if it is allowed to become estab- 
lished. Mares are much more subject to it than horses. 

Before the habit is inveterately established, a thorn-bush or 
a piece of furze fastened against the partition or post will some- 




PARTICCTLARLY DANGEROUS. 



KICKING. 205 

times effect a cure. When the horse finds that he is pretty 
severely pricked, he will not long continue to punish himself. 
In confirmed cases it may be necessary to have recourse to the 
log, but the legs are often not a little bruised by it. A rather 
long and heavy piece of wood attached to a chain has been 
buckled above the hock, so as to reach about half-way down 
the leg. When the horse attempts to kick violently, his leg will 
receive a severe blow ; this, and the repetition of it, may after 
a time teach him to be quiet. 

Kicking in harness is a much more serious vice. From the 
least annoyance about the rump or quarters, some horses will kick 
at a most violent rate, and destroy the bottom of the chaise, and 
endanger the limbs of the driver. Those that are fidgety in 
the stable are most inclined to do this. If the reins chance to 
get under the tail, the violence of the kicker will often be most 
outrageous; and while the animal presses down his tail so 
tightly that it is almost impossible to extricate the reins, he 
continues to plunge until he has demolished every thing behind 
him. 

This is a vice standing foremost in point of danger, and one 
which no treatment will always conquer. It is altogether in 
vain to attempt coercion. If the shafts are very strong and 
without flaw, or if they are plated with iron underneath, and a 
stout kicking-strap resorted to, which will barely allow the 
horse the proper use of his hind limbs in progression, but not 
permit him to raise them sufficiently for the purpose of kicking, 
he may be prevented from doing mischief. 



206 HEARING. 

REARING- 

This vice is not very common, at least in a dangerous form, 
and can generally be prevented by the use of the martingale. 

In the case of saddle-horses, another good prevention is, when 
the horse is about to rise, to touch him with the spur on one side 
only ; this will cause him to stop to lift the hind leg on that side, 
and if he persists in his attempt the spurs may be used vigor- 
ously, first on one side, and then on the other, but not so fast 
as to prevent the horse from raising his hind legs alternately, 
as he is spurred. The least touch of the curb-bit will cause 
some vicious and badly trained horses to rear, while those which 
have been thoroughly trained will rear slightly, to a great height, 
or not at all, as their rider may desire ; but it is obvious that 
horses so delicately trained should not be ridden by unskillful 
persons, lest the awkwardness of the rider should cause unex- 
pected curveting. 

The remedy of some breakers, that of pulling the horse back- 
ward on a soft piece of ground should be practiced by reckless 
and brutal fellows alone. Many horses have been injured in the 
spine, and others have broken their necks, by being thus sud- 
denly pulled over ; while even the fellow who fears no danger, 
is not always able to extricate himself from the falling horse. 
If rearing proceeds from vice, and is unprovoked by the bruis- 
ing and laceration of the mouth, it fully partakes of the invete- 
racy which attends the other divisions of restiveness. 



PULLING BACK ON THE HALTER. 

This is a vice which has probably arisen from the horse 
having, at some time, broken a weak halter in a fit of impa- 



VICIOUS TO CLEAN. 207 

tience. The only safe cure for it, and this is not always suc- 
cessful, is to tie the horse with a very strong halter, which it 
Will be impossible for him to break ; finding that his efforts 
are futile, he will, after a time, generally desist from pulling — 
though some incorrigible brutes will try every new halter as 
soon as they are fastened, and will break it if possible. 



BUNNIlfG AWAY. 
Some headstrong horses will occasionally endeavor to bolt 
with the best rider ; others, with their wonted sagacity, en- 
deavor thus to dislodge only the timid "or unskillful one. 
Some are hard to hold, or bolt only during the excitement of 
a trial of speed, or the like ; others will run away, prompted 
by vicious propensity alone. There is no certain cure here. 
The only method which affords any probability of success is, to 
ride such a horse with a strong curb and sharp bit ; to have 
him always firmly in hand ; and if he will run away, and the 
place will admit of it, to give him (sparing neither curb, whip, 
nor spur,) a great deal more running than he likes. 



VICIOUS TO CLEAN. 

It would scarcely be credited to what an extent this exists 
in some horses that are otherwise perfectly quiet ; it is only at 
great hazard that they can be cleaned at all. The origin of 
this is probably some maltreatment. There is, however, a 
great difference in the sensitiveness of the skin in different 
horses. Some seem as if they could scarcely be made to feel 
the whip, while others cannot bear a fly to light upon them 
without an expression of annoyance. In young horses the 
skin is peculiarly delicate. If they have been curried with a 



208 VICIOUS TO SHOE. 

broken comb, or hardly rubbed with an uneven brush, the 
recollection of the torture they have felt makes them impa- 
tient and even vicious during every succeeding operation of 
the kind. Many grooms, likewise, seem to delight in pro- 
ducing these exhibitions of uneasiness and vice, although, when 
they are carried a little too far, and at the hazard of the limbs 
of the groom, the animals that have been almost tortured into 
these manifestations of irritation, are brutally kicked and 
punished. 

This, however is a vice that may be conquered. If the 
horse is dressed with a lighter hand, and wiped rather than 
brushed, and the places where the skin is most sensitive are 
avoided as much as thorough cleanliness will allow, he will 
gradually lose the recollection of former ill-treatment, and be- 
come tractable and quiet. 

In those instances where the skin is so irritable that the 
horse really endures a great deal of misery every time he is 
cleaned besides requiring needlessly the expenditure of a 
great amount of muscular exertion, the remedy is very simple ; 
instead of being curry-combed and wiped, the horse should be 
merely washed over with warm water on his coming in warm 
from a journey, then gently scraped and covered with a rug. 
The warmth of the body will very soon dry the skin. 



VICIOUS TO SHOE. 

The correction of this is more peculiarly the business of the 
smith ; yet the master should diligently concern himself with 
it, for it is more often the consequence of injudicious or bad 
usage, than of natural vice. The vice is certainly a bad one, 
and it very materially diminishes the value of the horse ; for it 



VICIOUS TO SHOE. 209 

is a habit which generally gets worse at each time of snoeing. 
It is not so much the kicking of the horse that is to be feared, 
but the animal will bear his whole weight on the foot requiring 
to be shod, so that the smith is unable to lift it up, or after- 
ward to support it ; beside which the animal will keep con- 
tinually kicking or endeavoring to get the foot away, to the 
imminent danger of the limbs of the unfortunate operative. 
This deplorable and vicious habit is greatly increased, if not 
altogether produced, by rough usage at the early shoeings, 
and it generally gets worse at each time of shoeing, so that 
the horse is often rendered at last completely worthless. 

It may be expected that there will be some difficulty in 
shoeing a horse for the first few times, as it is an operation 
that gives him a little uneasiness. The man to whom he is 
most accustomed should go with him to the forge ; and if 
another and steady horse is shod before him, he may be in- 
duced more readily to submit. It cannot be denied that, after 
the habit of resisting this necessary operation is formed, force 
may sometimes be required in order to reduce our rebellious 
servant to obedience ; but there can be no manner of question 
that the large majority of horses vicious to shoe are rendered 
so by harsh usage, and by the pain of correction being added 
to the uneasiness of shoeing. It should be a rule in every 
forge, that no smith should be permitted to strike a horse, 
much less to twitch or gag him, without the master-farriers 
order ; and that a young horse should never be twitched or 
struck. There are few horses that may not gradually be ren- 
dered manageable for this purpose by mildness and firmness 
on the part of the operator ; they will soon understand that no 
harm is meant, and they will not forget their usual habit of 
14 



210 



CRIB-BITING. 



obedience ; but if the remembrance of corporeal punishment 
is connected with shoeing, they will always be fidgety, and 
occasionally dangerous. 



CRIB-BITING. 

This is a very unpleasant habit, and a considerable defect, 
although not so serious as it is often represented. The horse 
lays hold of the manger with his teeth, violently extends his 
neck, and then, after some convulsive action of the throat, a 
slight grunting is heard, accompanied by a sucking or drawing 
in of air. It is not an effort at simple eructation, arising from 
indigestion ; it is the inhalation of air. It is that which takes 
place with all kinds of diet, and when the stomach is empty as 
well as when it is full. 

The effects of crib-biting are plainly perceptible. The teeth 
are injured and worn away, and that, in an old horse, to a very 
serious degree. A considerable quantity 
of grain is often lost, for the horse will 
frequently crib with his mouth full 
of it, and the greater part will fall 
over the edge of the manger. 
Much saliva escapes while 
the manger is thus forcibly 
held, the loss of which must 
be of serious detriment in 
muzzle for a crib-biter. i m p a i r i ng . digestion The 

crib-biting horse is notoriously more subject to 
colic than other horses, and that of a kind difficult of treatment 
and peculiarly dangerous. Although many a crib-biter is stout 
and strong, and capable of all ordinary work, these horses do 




CRIB-BITING. 211 

not generally carry as much flesh as others, and have not their 
endurance ; on these accounts, crib-biting has been, and very 
properly, decided by the highest authority to be unsound- 
ness. 

It is moreover one of those tricks which are exceedingly con- 
tagious. Every companion of a crib-biter in the same stable, 
is likely to acquire the habit, and it is the most inveterate of all 
habits. The edge of the manger will in vain be lined with iron, 
or with sheep-skin, or with sheep-skin covered with tar or aloes, 
or any other unpleasant substance. In spite of the annoyance 
which these may occasion, the horse will persist in his attack 
on the manger. A strap buckled tightly round the neck, by 
compressing the windpipe, is the best means of preventing the 
possibility of this trick ; but the strap must be constantly worn, 
and its pressure is apt to produce a worse affection, viz., an 
irritation of the windpipe, which terminates in roaring. 

Some have recommended turning out for five or six months ; 
but this has never succeeded, except with a young horse, and 
then but rarely. The old crib-biter will employ the gate for 
the same purpose as the edge of his manger, and he will often 
gallop across a field for the mere purpose of having a bite at 
the rail. Medicine is altogether thrown away in such a case. 

The only remedy is a muzzle, with bars across the bottom ; 
sufficiently wide to enable the animal to pick up his corn and 
to pull his hay, but not to grasp the edge of his manger. If 
this is worn for a considerable period, the horse may be tired 
of attempting that which he cannot accomplish, and for a 
while forget the habit ; but in a majority of cases the desire of 
crib-biting will return with the power of gratifying it. 

The causes of crib-biting are various, and some of them be- 



212 OVERREACHING. 

yond the control of the owner of the horse. It is often the 
result of imitation ; but it is more frequently the consequence 
of idleness. The high-fed and spirited horse must be in mis- 
chief, if he is not usefully employed. Sometimes, but not often, 
it is produced by partial starvation ; and another occasional 
cause is the frequent custom of dressing the horse, even when 
the weather is not severe, in the stable, — thus enabling the 
animal to catch at the edge of the manger, or at that of the 
partition on each side, if he has been turned. 



WIND-SUCKING. 

This closely resembles crib-biting, and arises from the same 
causes ; the same purpose is accomplished, and the same results 
follow. The horse stands with his back bent, his head drawn 
inward, his lips alternately slightly opened and then closed, and 
a noise is heard as if he were sucking. It appears quite pro- 
bable, judging from the same comparative want of condition 
and the flatulence noted in connection with the last habit, that 
either some portion of wind enters the stomach, or there is an 
injurious loss of saliva. 

This vice diminishes the value of the animal nearly as much 
as crib-biting ; it is equally as contagious and inveterate. The 
only remedies — and they will seldom avail — are tying the head 
up, except when the horse is feeding, or putting on a muzzle 
with sharp spikes toward the neck, which will prick him when- 
ever he attempts to rein his head in for the purpose of wind- 
sucking. 



OVERREACHING. 

This unpleasant noise known also by the name of " clicking," 
is occasioned by the toe of the hind foot, or the inner edge of 



NOT LYING DOWN. 213 

the inside of its shoe, striking upon the heel of the coronet of 
the fore foot. The preventive treatment is the beveling, or 
rounding off, of the inside rim or edge of the hind shoe. The 
cure is, the cutting away of the loose parts, the application of 
Friar's balsam, and protection from the dirt. 

Some horses, particularly young ones, overreach so as to 
strike the toes of the hind shoes against the fore ones, which is 
termed "clinking. " Keeping up the head of the horse does some- 
thing to prevent this ; but the smith may do more by shortening 
the toe of the hind shoes and having the web broad. When 
they are too long, they are apt to be torn off ; when too narrow, 
the hind foot may bruise the sole of the fore one, or may be 
locked fast between the branches of the fore shoe. 



NOT LYING DOWN. 

It occasionally happens that a horse will seldom or never 
lie down in the stable. He sometimes continues in apparent 
good health, and feeds and works well ; but generally his legs 
swell, and he becomes fatigued sooner than another horse. If 
it is impossible to let him loose in the stable, or to put him 
into a spare box, nothing can be done to obviate the difficulty. 
No means, gentle or cruel, will force him to lie down. The 
secret is, that he is tied up, and either has never dared to lie 
down through fear of the confinement of the halter, or he has 
been cast in the night and severely injured. If he can be suf- 
fered to range the stable, or have a comfortable box in which 
he may be loose, he will usually lie down the first night. Some 
few horses, however, will lie down in a stable, and not in a loose 
box. A fresh, well-made bed will generally tempt the tired 
horse to refresh himself with sleep. 



214 



SHYING. 



It may be observed in this connection, that the basis of sup- 
port afforded by the four extremities is so considerable in the 
horse, that he is able to sleep in a standing position, and some 
horses have even been known to preserve their health, strength, 
and condition, although they were never known to lie down, 
At the same time, it is undeniable, that an animal that will 
quickly lie down and take his rest, as a general rule, preserves 
his condition, and is better fitted for exertion. 



SHYING. 

This most dangerous habit is sometimes the effect of fear, and 
sometimes is a downright vicious propensity; and there are 

many horses which commence the 
practice through fear and end by 
becoming viciously disposed to 
indulge in it, in consequence of 
sheer mismanage- 
ment. The young 
colt is almost al- 
ways more or less 
shy, especially if 
he is brought at 
once from the re- 
tired fields in which 
he was reared to the streets of a busy town. 

There are, however, numberless varieties of shyers, some 
being dreadfully alarmed by one kind of object, which to another 
is not at all formidable. When a horse finds that he gains his 
object by turning around, he will often repeat the turning with- 
out cause,* pretending to be alarmed, and looking out for ex- 




DISAGREEABLE AND DANGEROUS. 



SHYING. 215 

cuses for it. This is not at all uncommon, and with timid 
riders leads to a discontinuance of the ride, by which the horse 
gains his end for the time, and repeats the trick upon the first 
occasion. In genuine shying from fear, the eyes are generally 
more or less defective ; but sometimes this is not the cause, 
which is founded upon a general irritability of the nervous 
system. Thus, there are many that never shy at meeting wagons, 
or other similar objects, but which almost drop with fear on a 
small bird flying out of a hedge, or any other startling sound. 
These are also worse, because they give no notice, whereas the 
ordinary shyer almost always shows by his ears that he is pre- 
pared to turn. 

For shyers the only remedy is, to take as little notice as 
possible, to make light of the occurrence, speak encouragingly, 
yet rather severely, and to get them by the object in one way or 
another. If needful, the aid of the spur and whip may be called 
in, but not as & punishment. If the horse can be urged to go 
by the object at which he is shying without the whip or spur, 
so much the better ; but if not, he must be compelled to do so 
by their use. Wherever fear is the cause of shying, punishment 
only adds to that fear; but where vice has supplanted fear, 
severity should be used to correct it. 

As a general rule, the whip need never be used, unless the 
horse turns absolutely round, and not then unless there is reason 
to suspect that he is pretending fear. If he will only go by the 
object, even with "a wide berth," as the sailors say, he may be 
suffered to go on his way unpunished ; and nothing is so bad 
as the absurd severity which some horsemen exercise after the 
horse has conquered his reluctance, and passed the object. At 
this time he should be praised and petted, with all the en- 



216 PAWING. 

couragement which can be given ; and on no account should he 
be taught to make those rushes which are so commonly seen 
on the road, from the improper use of whip and spur. If pun- 
ishment is necessary at all, it must be used beforehand ; but it 
often happens that the rider cannot spare his whip-hand until 
the shying is over ; and then, in his passion, he does not reflect 
that the time has passed for its employment. 

Shying on coming out of the stable is a habit that can rarely 
or never be cured. It proceeds from the remembrance of some 
ill-usage or hurt which the animal has received in the act of 
proceeding from the stable, such as striking his head against a 
low door-way, or entangling the harness. 

When the cure, however, is early attempted, it may be so far 
overcome that it will be unattended with danger or difficulty. 
The horse should be bridled when led out or in. He should be 
held short and tight by the head, that he may feel that he has 
not liberty to make a leap, and this of itself is often sufficient 
to restrain him. Punishment, or a threat of it, will be highly 
improper. It is only timid or high-spirited horses that acquire 
the habit, and rough usage invariably increases their agitation 
and terror. 



PAWING. 

Some hot and irritable horses are restless even in the stable, 
and paw frequently and violently. Their litter is destroyed, 
the floor of the stable broken up, the shoes worn out, the feet 
bruised, and the legs sometimes sprained. If this habit does 
not exist to any great extent, yet the stable never looks well. 
Shackles are the only remedy, with a chain sufficiently long to 
suable the horse to shift his posture, or move in his stall ; but 



SLIPPING THE COLLAR OR HALTER. 21 1 

these must be taken off at night, otherwise the animal will 
seldom lie down. Unless, however, the horse possesses pecu- 
liar value, it will be better to dispose of him at once, than to 
submit to the danger and inconvenience that he may occasion. 



ROLLING. 

This is a very pleasant and perfectly safe amusement for a 
horse at grass, but cannot be indulged in the stable without the 
chance of his being dangerously entangled with the collar, rein, 
or halter, and being cast. Yet, although the horse is cast, and 
bruised, and half strangled, he will roll again on the following 
night and continue to do so as long as he lives. The only 
remedy is not a very pleasant one for the horse, ^ior always 
quite safe ; yet recourse must be had to it, if the habit of rolling 
is inveterate. The horse should be tied with length enough of 
halter to lie down, but not to allow of his head resting upon 
the ground ; because, in order to roll over, a horse is obliged 
to place his head quite down upon the ground. 



SLIPPING- THE COLLAR OH HALTER. 

This is a trick in which many horses are so well accomplished, 
that scarcely a night passes without their getting loose. It is 
a very serious habit, for it enables the horse sometimes to gorge 
himself with food to the imminent danger of producing stag- 
gers ; or it exposes him, as he wanders about, to be kicked and 
injured by the other horses, while his restlessness will often keep 
the whole team awake. If the web of the halter, being first 
accurately fitted to his neck, is suffered to slip only one way, 
or a strap is attached to the halter and buckled round the neck, 
but not sufficiently tight to be of serious inconvenience, the 
power of slipping the collar will be taken away. 



218 STUMBLING. 

STUMBLING. 

That person must either be a skillful practitioner, or a mere 
pretender, who engages to remedy this habit. If it arise from 
a heavy forehand, and the fore legs, being too much under the 
horse, no one can alter the natural frame of the animal ; if it 
proceeds from tenderness of foot, grogginess, or old lameness, 
these ailments are seldom cured. Also, if it is to be traced to 
habitual carelessness and idleness, no whipping will rouse the 
drone. A known stumbler should never be ridden or driven 
by any one who values his safety or his life. A tight hand or 
a strong bracing-rein are precautions that should not be neg- 
lected, although they are generally of little avail ; for the in- 
veterate stumbler will rarely be able to save himself, and this 
tight rein may sooner and further precipitate the rider. If 
after stumbling the horse suddenly starts forward, and endea- 
vors to break into a short trot or canter, the rider may be 
assured that others before him have fruitlessly endeavored to 
remedy the nuisance. 

If the stumbler has the foot kept as short, and the toe pared 
as close as safety will permit, and the shoe is rounded at the 
toe, or has that shape given to it which it naturally acquires in 
a fortnight from the peculiar action of such a horse, the animal 
may not stumble quite so much ; or if the disease which pro- 
duced the habit can be alleviated, some trifling good may be 
done ; but in almost every case the stumbler should be got rid 
of, or put to slow and heavy work. If the latter alternative 
is adopted, he may stumble as much as he pleases, for the 
weight of the load and the motion of the other horses will keep 
him upon his legs. 



UNSTEADINESS WHILE BEING MOUNTED. 219 

UNSTEADINESS WHILE BEING MOUNTED. 

When this merely amounts to eagerness to start — very un- 
pleasant, indeed, at times, for many a rider has been thrown 
from his seat before he was fairly fixed in it — it may be reme- 
died by an active and good horseman. It oftentimes happens 
that while the elderly, inactive, and fearful man is engaged in 
making more than one ineffectual attempt to vault into the 
saddle, the horse is dancing about to his annoyance and danger ; 
but no sooner is the animal transferred to the management of a 
younger and more agile rider, than he becomes perfectly sub- 
dued. Severity will here, more decidedly than in any other 
case, do harm. The rider should be fearless ; he should care- 
lessly and confidentially approach the horse, mount at the first 
effort, and then restrain him for a while ; patting him, and 
not allowing him to proceed until he becomes perfectly quiet. 
Horses of this kind should not be too highly fed, and should 
have sufficient daily exercise. 

When the difficulty of mounting arises, not from eagerness 
to start, but from unwillingness to be ridden, the sooner that 
horse is disposed of the better. He may be conquered by a 
skillful and determined horseman ; but even he will not succeed 
without frequent and dangerous contests that will mar all the 
pleasures of the ride. 





:|§EAS£SSirREMEDiES 

Under this head it is proposed to treat of 
the various diseases which horse-flesh is heir 
to, together with their symptoms, and to 
offer such remedies as personal experience, or the authority 
of others in whom implicit confidence may be placed, suggests 
as the most efficacious. For convenience of discussion, these 
diseases are arranged in the present work under the heads of 
diseases of the mouth ; of the respiratory organs ; of the 
stomach and intestines ; of the limbs ; of the urinary organs ; 
of the feet and legs; of the heart; of the head; and 
(220) 



LAMPAS. 221 



of the eye;— placing under the head of miscellaneous such 
as do not appropriately fall under either of the foregoing 



DISEASES OF THE MOUTH. 



LAMPAS. 

This term is used to designate a fullness or swelling of the 
bars or roof of the mouth, caused by the cutting of the teeth. 
Lampas will be found in all colts, although in many the slight 
inconvenience occasioned by it attracts little or no attention. 
In others, however, the great tenderness of the parts affected 
causes the animal to refuse his food, in consequence of which 
he is by many compelled to submit to an operation equally 
cruel and unnecessary — that is, no less than burning out the 
bars of the mouth with a red-hot iron, thereby destroying the 
functions of the part, and leaving the mouth sore for some 
time afterward. This mode of treatment has been practised 
for years, and is even at the present day almost the only one 
in vogue, although it is of no practical benefit whatever, but, 
on the contrary, is often very injurious. In the case of the 
child similarly affected, the humane practitioner seldom does 
more than to lance the gums. This, certainly, is a more 
rational mode of operating, and the author's experience con- 
vinces him that if the parts inflamed in the case of the horse 
be simply lanced, the swelling will soon subside, and the horse 
partake of his food as usual. A common pocket-knife will 
answer the purpose quite well ; and after the lancing the 



222 ULCERS IN THE MOUTH. 

mouth should be washed with a solution of the tincture of 
myrrh, two ounces to a pint of water, or a solution of alum 
in water. This should be repeated twice a day for three or 
four days, during which time give bran mashes or flax-seed 
gruel, and, if procurable, a small quantity of new grass. No 
hay, corn, or oats, should be given for a week ; at the expira- 
tion of which period the teeth will be in a condition to masti- 
cate such food. 



INFLAMED GUMS. 

Occasionally the gums of very young horses, when cutting 
their teeth, become exceedingly tender, sore, and swollen. 
As this is principally confined to the yearling, it is generally 
overlooked by the owner. The treatment in such cases is to 
cut the gum through to the tooth immediately under it with 
a lancet or common pocket-knife. The gum being thus 
broken, the tooth conies through with little pain. 



BAGS OR ^WASHES. 

These are soft, puny swellings of the membrane of the 
mouth, lining the lips, just within the corners of the mouth. 
This disease is generally caused by the bearing rein being too 
tight. They are cured by cutting off a portion of the swelling 
with a pair of scissors or a knife ; after which the parts should 
be dressed with a little salt, or powdered alum. This gener- 
ally proves successful. 



ULCERS IN THE MOUTH. 

Horses, during the process of breaking, are frequently hurt 
by the pressure of the bit upon the under jaw a little in front of 



SORE MOUTH. 223 

the first molar tooth ; in consequence of which the periosteum, 
or thin fibrous membrane covering the bone, often becomes 
involved in the inflammation, the bone itself not always escap- 
ing injury, a neglect of which occasionally causes the bone 
of the jaw to become carious or decayed ; sinuses, or pipe-like 
openings, are sometimes formed, which becoming filled with 
masticated food, become fetid and often occasion troublesome 
sores. Grooms on discovering this sore, generally attribute it 
to what is commonly called squirrel grass, or wild barley. If 
the sore is confined to the gum alone, it should be washed fre- 
quently, and dressed with a little tincture of myrrh ; but when 
the bone is affected, it must be examined carefully with a probe, 
and if found rough, or presenting small openings, the bone must 
be exposed, and all the diseased parts removed, after which the 
tincture of myrrh should be used for a dressing. Such opera- 
tions should be performed by a qualified veterinary surgeon, if 
one is to be had ; otherwise more injury may be done by the 
bungling operator than would be occasioned by the disease. 
If such services cannot be procured, caustic silver, or lunar 
caustic, should be applied to the diseased bone. If the caustic 
is not readily obtainable, the red-hot iron will answer the pur- 
pose as well, or even better. Butter of antimony, placed on a 
little cotton or tow, and packed in the sore, is an excellent 
application, as it hastens a separation or exfoliation of the 
diseased bone, thus enabling the parts soon to heal. 



SOKE MOUTH. 

This is often caused by the bit's cutting or bruising the lips 
at the angles of the mouth. In carelessly balling horses, also, 
the under part of the tongue sometimes becomes injured, which 



224 UNEVEN TEETH. 

frequently escapes notice until the animal refuses his food, 
and the tongue becomes tender and swollen. In such cases, 
wash the mouth clean, and sprinkle a teaspoonful of table salt 
on the sore ; the tincture of myrrh occasionally applied will 
hasten the cure. 



CUT TONGUE. 

The tongue sometimes becomes bruised from the sudden 
jerking of the lines in the hands of a careless or obstinate 
driver, or it may happen from tight reining ; that portion of 
the tongue upon which the bit rests becoming bruised and 
ulcerated, and the frequent use of the bit keeping up the 
irritation, until the tongue, in some cases, becomes almost 
separated by ulceration before it is discovered. Alum water, 
saltpetre, and tincture of myrrh are the proper dressings. 



UNEVEN" TEETH. 

The molar teeth frequently become very uneven upon their 
faces or grinding surfaces, in consequence of the crusta petrosa 
wearing away too rapidly and often leaving deep cavities in the 
teeth, which become filled with food and soon prove a great 
source of annoyance by interfering with proper mastication. 
This occurs more particularly in old horses. The upper molar 
teeth being well protected on the outer surface with enamel, 
wear less rapidly than the lower ones which are protected upon 
the inner side. In consequence of this the upper teeth often 
become very sharp upon the outside, and when the reins are 
drawn up the cheeks are forced upon these sharp edges and 
become sore and often lacerated, while the lower ones becoming 
sharp on the inside edges, lacerate the tongue in a similar 



QU1DDING. 225 

manner. The liorse from this cause often refuses his food, since 
mastication causes him severe pain. He soon begins to lose 
'flesh, the digestive organs become deranged, the skin becomes 
tight, and the animal is perhaps doctored for bots, worms, and 
the like. 

In all these cases the tooth-rasp becomes necessary, which 
is an instrument made concave, or hollow, upon one side, and 
convex, or rounding, on the other, with a long handle attached. 
The rasp is upon the hollow side, the round side and the edges 
being perfectly smooth so as not to wound the cheeks or tongue 
when used. With this instrument the sharp corners of the teeth 
are easily taken off, and the horse is enabled to feed again in 
the proper manner. If the teeth are in this condition, no 
medicine is of any avail ; all the condition powders in the world 
will not benefit in the slightest degree ; the tooth-rasp is the 
only remedy that will prove serviceable. 



QUIDDING. 

This disease, if disease it may be called, is generally caused 
by the irregular wear of the teeth already mentioned ; or it may 
nrise from caries of the teeth, or from a diseased state of the 
muscles of deglutition. "I have seen," says White, "at the 
kennel the jaw of a horse which died literally from starvation 
in consequence of a disease of the grinding teeth, which ap- 
peared to have been brought on by feeding on coarse woody 
hay, containing the stocks of thistles, docks, &c. This animal 
was what dealers term a quidder, for the muscles of deglutition 
were at least so affected that he was incapable of swallowing; 
and after fruitless attempts to chew his food it was thrown out 
into the manger in a ball or quid, and a great deal of imper- 
15 



226 WOLF TEETH. 

fectly chewed hay had been forced into the cavities formed at 
the roots of some of the grinding teeth." The tooth-rasp 
sometimes proves a perfect cure in such cases. 

WOLF TEETH. 

Yery erroneous opinions are entertained by horsemen, and 
even by veterinary surgeons, in reference to these teeth, and 
various theories have from time to time been set afloat regard- 
ing them, arising, for the most part, from a want of proper in- 
vestigation. 

These teeth are natural to all horses, and make their appear- 
ance between the first and fifth year. They are not supernu- 
merary teeth, as has been stated by some writers, but are 
natural teeth found in all colts. The germs of these teeth will 
be found in the foal at birth, and developed in the jaw of the 
yearling ready to make their way through the gums. In an 
examination of at least one hundred heads of colts that have 
died under eighteen months of age, the author has found in 
every instance either natural wolf teeth, or the germs from 
which they are developed. It is a mistaken idea, that these 
teeth exert any influence over the eyes. Nature never placed 
them in their position for the purpose of injury. In cases where 
the eye is supposed to be affected by them, it is simply neces- 
sary to treat the eye for inflammation, and allow the teeth to 
remain. As a general rule they do not remain in the jaw long 
after being cut ; having performed their function, whatever it 
may be, they fall out and are therefore seldom found. Their 
removal can do no harm but it is an entirely unnecessary 
operation. 



CARIES OF THE TEETH. 




THE BLOODED MARE FASHION AND FOAL. 



CARIES OP THE TEETH 
The teeth of horses, as has already been stated, are made up 
of three substances, the enamel, the bone, and the crusta petrosa; 
and in consequence of their peculiar arrangement 

and the inability 
of the animal to 
inform us of his 
sufferings, this dis- 
ease frequently be- 
comes much more 
serious than in 
man. Its opera- 
tion, besides, is 
quite different, 
upon the teeth of horses from what it is upon the human teeth. 
In the human subject caries is found, in a large majority of 
cases, making its appearance as a dark spot between the teeth, 
on one side of the crown, gradually working inwards, destroy- 
ing the bone in its progress, and leaving the enamel a mere 
shell upon the outside of the tooth, while the roots generally 
remain in a comparatively sound condition during the progress 
of decay. In the horse, however, caries is a very different thing, 
as far as its effects are concerned. It makes its appearance 
upon some one or more of the indentations or depressions upon 
the face of the tooth, attacking the crusta petrosa, (a substance 
not found in the human tooth,) and extending from the face 
through the entire length of the tooth, splitting it up into 
several thin plates, in consequence of which diseases often form 
at the roots of such teeth, which, being prevented from dis- 



228 CARIES OF THE TEETH. 

charging into the mouth by the food that fills up the cavity, 
generally find an opening into the nose, discharging their fetid 
matter through that channel. The animal while in this condi- 
tion is often treated for catarrh, commonly called distemper. 
The discharge still continuing, and becoming more and more 
fetid, the animal is at last supposed to be in a glandered con- 
dition and killed. 

The first case of this kind which came under the author's 
notice occurred in the year 1853. Having occasion to visit the 
yard where dead animals are boiled, the peculiar appearance of 
one horse lying upon the ground attracted his attention. Upon 
inquiry he learned that he had been killed as a glandered horse; 
but failing to recognize any such marks as might be expected 
in that disease, he made a very careful examination of the head 
and found the real cause of trouble to be, not glanders, but a 
carious tooth, of which but three small ribbon-like fragments 
remained. This horse was but seven years old. An abscess 
had formed at the root of the tooth, discharging itself into the 
nostril, whence it was ejected. Another horse, with similar 
symptoms, pronounced glandered by two eminent veterinary sur- 
geons, was destroyed at the same place in the year 1859. The 
author's examination disclosed the fact, that the first two molar 
teeth were almost entirely destroyed by caries, and that a large 
abscess had formed at their roots, which extended into and 
completely closed up one nostril, causing an immense tumor on 
the right side of the head. 

The difficulty of examining the molar teeth of the horse, to- 
gether with the silence of veterinary authors on this important 
subject, are the only assignable reasons for the little informa- 
tion given us relative to a disease of such common occurrence. 



CARIES OP THE TEETH. 229 

Indeed, the author has frequently been called upon to treat 
horses laboring under this disease, without a suspicion ever 
being entertained of its true nature. / 

A case of this kind came under his notice in the winter of 
1858, while on a visit to Jackson, Michigan. He was called 
to see a bay mare kept for livery purposes, having a discharge 
from the right side of the face some two inches below the eye, 
which had existed for about two years. The discharge was of 
so fetid a character that the animal was rendered unfit for use, 
and she was consequently turned upon the common to die or 
get well, as the chances might be, all known modes of treatment 
having been previously adopted without any beneficial results. 
He discovered, upon examination, a carious tooth, which was 
removed, and in a short time the animal became well. During 
the winter of 1859, a brown mare, belonging to a gentleman in 
Germantown, Pennsylvania, was sent to the Clinic of the Phi, 
ladelphia Yeterinary College, having been pronounced glanderea! 
by a veterinary surgeon and ordered to be killed. Upon ex- 
amination a large abscess was discovered opening into the nose, 
together with two carious teeth — the first and second molars of 
the right side. The mare was cast, and ten pieces of carious 
teeth removed ; the cavity was then well cleaned out, and tow 
saturated with tincture of myrrh filled in, removing and cleaning 
every day. Some four weeks subsequently, the animal was sold 
for one hundred and fifty dollars, sound as a bell ; though pre- 
viously to this operation she could not have been sold at any 
price. Many similar cases could be mentioned, but the fore- 
going will serve to show the necessity of making a thorough 
examination of an animal before pronouncing sentence of death 
upon it. 



230 EXTRACTING TEETH. 

Acidity of the fluids of the mouth is generally— and, as the 
author believes, correctly — assigned as the cause of caries of the 
teeth. The symptoms are fetid discharges from the nose, ob- 
structed respiration, improper mastication of the food, passing 
the oats or corn whole, quidding, drowsiness, loss of flesh, 
staring coat, hide-bound, tossing to and fro of the head, stop- 
ping short on the road, starting suddenly, and at times becoming 
almost frantic. All these symptoms, however, must not be 
expected to be found in the same case, as different horses are 
differently affected by the disease. One is drowsy, feeds daintily 
at times, and again ravenously ; another is at times wild, so as 
to be almost unmanageable. Many of these symptoms occur in 
other diseases besides those of the teeth ; but their presence 
suggests the necessity for an examination of the mouth, and 
particularly of the molar teeth, which may be done by passing 
the hand along the upper molar teeth inside of the cheek, thus 
enabling the examiner to detect the presence of caries without 
difficulty. 



EXTKACTING TEETH. 

When a carious tooth, or one so unequally worn as to cause 
mischief, is discovered, its removal is necessary to the restora- 
tion of the animal's health. In order to accomplish this, the 
horse must be cast, and the age of the animal considered, in 
order to make choice of proper instruments. If he is young, 
say from four to six years, an instrument made similar to the 
key used by surgeon dentists, is the best adapted; if he is old, 
a pair of forceps of large size, made in the same manner as the 
tooth-forceps of dentists, will answer, as the roots of the teeth 
in old horses are comparatively short, and therefore may be 
easily extracted. 



INFLAMMATION. 231 

DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS 



INFLAMMATION. 

The diseases of the respiratory organs and air passages are 
generally of an inflammatory type. In order to fully under- 
stand the various diseases to which these important organs are 
subject, a few remarks regarding the nature of inflammation, its 
progress, &c, may not be out of place in a work like the 
present. 

Inflammation, then, is a state of altered nutrition, an increased 
vascularity and sensibility of the parts involved, together with 
a tendency to change of structure. The symptoms are swelling, 
pain, heat, and redness where the parts are not covered with 
hair. The redness is in consequence of a redundancy of blood 
in the inflamed part, which distends the small capillaries with 
red particles of blood. When the inflammation is acute, the 
parts present a bright red or crimson hue ; when it is chronic, 
they are of a dark or purplish red color. As the various terms 
employed by authors to indicate the various degrees are unin- 
teresting to the general reader, no attempt at detail is here 
made. 

The sensation of pain is mainly due to a stretching of the 
nerves by the distended blood-vessels. It differs in its char- 
acter and intensity according to the parts involved, varying 
from a burning, throbbing, sharp, and lacerating pain to a 
mere sense of heat, soreness, and a dull sensation of pain. The 
heat in inflammation is supposed to arise from an increased 
quantity of blood in the inflamed part. The swelling in the 
early stage is due to the increased quantity of blood, and 



232 SORE THROAT. 

afterward to the effusion which takes place in all loose tissues. 
By inflammation all the various structures of the animal 
economy may be so altered as to interfere with the perform- 
ance of their natural functions ; in some cases by a permanent 
thickening of the parts, and in others by adhesion and the like. 
By the aid of auscultation, that is, the application of the 
ear to the parts to be examined, the slightest change in the 
normal and healthy condition of the respiratory organs may 
be detected, and the various parts involved in inflammatory 
action may be pointed out with a considerable degree of cer- 
tainty. With thus much of introduction we proceed to the 
consideration of the various diseases naturally falling under our 
present division. 



SORE TEEOAT. 

Sore throat is a common attendant upon catarrhal affec- 
tions. When it is confined to that portion of the throat at 

the root of the 
tongue, which is 
known to medical 
men as the larynx, 
I§| it is called laryng- 
itis ; and this part 
is the common 
seat of this dis- 
ease, from which 
it extends down 

THE SADDLE HORSE. . t , t 

the trachea, or 
windpipe, to the lungs. As long as the throat remains very 
sore, it is a pretty good evidence that the lungs are not affected. 




SORE THROAT. 233 

This disease may exist either in an acute, sub-acute, or chronic 
form. When acute, its management is simple and usually suc- 
cessful ; but if it is neglected in this early stage, it not unfre- 
quently proves troublesome, and in some cases leaves the 
animal permanently unsound, terminating in wheezing, whist- 
ling, roaring, or broken- windedness. 

The symptoms of sore throat are easily detected by the or- 
dinary observer. According to the intensity of the disease 
there is an accumulation of saliva in the mouth, clear, thick, 
and stringy, more particularly when the tongue is swollen ; a 
stiffness of the head, the horse coughing upon the slightest 
pressure on the larynx; difficulty in swallowing, more par- 
ticularly hard grain or hay, and a consequent refusal of food 
altogether; a short, hard cough; more or less copious dis- 
charges from the nose, as the disease advances ; an accelerated 
pulse, frequently rising to ninety or one hundred pulsations in 
a minute ; mouth hot, with considerable fever accompanying. 

For treatment, app]y strong mustard, mixed with water to 
the thickness of cream, to the throat, rub it well in, and 
repeat as often as may be necessary ; or poultice the part with 
flaxseed meal for several days, and sprinkle on the tongue a 
teaspoonful of common table salt three or four times a day, 
which in ordinary cases is all the treatment which will be 
necessary for the acute type of the disease. 

The attention of the veterinary surgeon is more frequently 
called to chronic forms of this disease, in which, though no 
swelling of the parts is usually perceptible, a pressure upon 
the larynx at once excites a hard cough. In this stage of the 
disease much relief will be obtained by the application of a 
blister, prepared as follows : Pulverized cantharides (Spanish 



234 STRANGLES. 

flies) half an ounce ; of lard, one and a half ounces ; mixed 
well, and as thin as may be desired with spirits of turpentine. 
This must be well rubbed in, and after it has acted thoroughly, 
dress with sweet oil or lard. 



STBAN-GLES. 

This is but another form or stage of laryngitis. The throat 
becomes enormously swollen, the swelling extending under the 
jaws and up to the very ears, threatening suffocation ; then 
respiration becomes much disturbed ; the flanks heave violently, 
and the breathing can be heard at a considerable distance ; 
the animal begins to sweat from his frequently convulsive 
efforts to breathe, and, if not speedily relieved, dies a most 
violent death. 

Life may be saved by the veterinary surgeon at this crisis 
by the operation of bronchotomy, that is, by opening the 
windpipe, and inserting a tube through which the animal may 
breathe instead of through the nose. This operation affords 
instant relief, and gives an opportunity to apply remedies to 
the diseased throat, which in a few days usually effect a cure, 
when the tube may be removed. The author has never lost 
a case where he has resorted to this operation. 

The early treatment of this disease is to poultice the throat 
well with flaxseed meal, commonly called cake-meal or oil-cake, 
using salt upon the tongue as before. Mustard plasters are 
also very effective, and steaming the nostrils frequently affords 
relief. As soon as the swelling permits, it should be lanced ; 
and when it has once discharged freely, the animal may be 
considered out of danger, provided proper care be taken to 
guard against a relapse. A seton applied between the jaws 



CHRONIC COUGH. 235 

often relieves ; but these cases are safer in the hands of a com- 
petent surgeon. Under no circumstances of this disease should 
the animal be bled. 

Malignant or putrid sore throat, is fortunately but little 
known in the United States, the author not being aware of 
its existence in any portion. Cases presenting somewhat 
similar symptoms have been found upon examination to differ 
in a marked degree from those which accompany this form 
of disease as they are laid down in the works of foreign 
authors. A detailed description of this type of the disease is 
therefore deemed unnecessary in the present treatise. 



CHKONIC COUGH. 

This arises from various causes, and is present in a number 
of diseases. It is often symptomatic of some affection of the 
lungs and air passages ; and it sometimes exists apparently as 
an independent affection, the animal thriving well, and retain- 
ing unimpaired his appetite and spirits. 

If it arises from irritation of the larynx, or upper part of 
the throat, a few applications of mustard will be beneficial ; 
if from worms in the stomach or intestines, treat as directed 
under the head of " Worms." If it exists without any appar- 
ent connection, or as the termination of disease previously 
existing, give every night in a bran mash one of these pow- 
ders : of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), digitalis (fox-glove), 
pulverized squills, nitre, and camphor, each one ounce ; to 
be made into ten powders. Green food, as carrots, potatoes, 
turnips, or parsnips, should be given when procurable. 



236 CATARRH. 

CATAEEH. 

This disease, commonly called a cold, is confined in ordinary- 
cases to the lining membrane of the nose and neighboring parts ; 
but in severe cases the inflammation sometimes extends down 
the air passages to the lungs, frequently resulting fatally. In 
the spring of the year this disease frequently appears in an epi- 
zootic form, when the symptoms are more alarming and the 
termination more generally fatal. 

If the inflammation is confined to the nostrils, the membrane 
lining those cavities is reddened, a thin watery or mucous dis- 
charge from the nostrils takes place, accompanied with frequent 
sneezing ; if the larynx is involved, there are cough, swellings 
underneath the jaws, etc. 

Some authors recommend bleeding in this affection; but such 
an abuse of the lancet can do no good, and is often productive 
of much harm. If the symptoms are slight, one of the follow- 
ing powders given night and morning will be all that is re- 
quired : of saltpetre two ounces ; of pulverized Jamaica ginger 
one ounce ; mixed, and divided into eight powders. If there is 
swelling under the jaws, poultice the throat with flaxseed meal ; 
if much discharge from the nostrils, steam them well with boil- 
ing water poured upon bran. If the inflammation exhibits any 
tendency to extend down the windpipe, apply a blister all along 
the neck over the windpipe from the throat to the breast, giving 
one of the following balls night and morning ; of nitrate of 
potassa and pulverized gentian root, each one ounce ; Jamaica 
ginger and caraway seeds, each half an ounce ; mix with 
molasses and divide into six balls. If the discharge from the 
nose continues, the animal losing flesh, and the appetite being 



INFLUENZA. 



237 



impaired, give one of the following powders in the feed night 
and morning : sulphate of copper one ounce ; pulverized gentian 
root one and a half ounces ; pulverized ginger six drachms ; 
mix and divide into eight powders. Good wholesome food only 
should be given. 



DISTEMPER. 

All catarrhal affections are classed by horse-owners under 
the common head of distemper. Common catarrh, epizootic or 
epidemic catarrh, laryngitis, bronchitis, and all other diseases 
accompanied by nasal discharges, are regarded by horsemen 
generally as one and the same disease. 



INFLUENZA. 

For several years past a disease has been more or less preva- 
lent in various sections of the United States, known to the 

veterinary profession as 
7* epizootic (epidemic) ca- 
tarrh, or influ- 
enza. The 
symptoms of 
this disease 
I are so various 
in different 
animals, no two 
being precisely 
alike, that a vari- 
ety of opinions are current 

QUIET ENJOYMENT. J ? 

concerning it and its nature, and, as a consequence, various 
other diseases are often confounded with it. 




238 INFLUENZA. 

In the year 1855, this disease made its appearance in the 
stables of one of the largest omnibus proprietors in Philadel- 
phia, and some nine horses died in about two weeks. These 
were supposed to have been foundered, and were treated for 
that disease. A careful examination, however, by a competent 
practitioner revealed the true nature of the disease, and under 
proper treatment the balance of the stock was saved. Shortly 
after the demand for veterinary surgeons was very great, and 
while they saved forty-eight out of every fifty cases, the farrier 
lost almost every case he attempted to treat, principally from 
his too common practice of bleeding and purging ; thus reducing 
the system so low that nature became exhausted. 

This disease is called by horsemen pink-eye distemper, and is 
by many regarded incurable, though the author knows of no 
disease that more readily yields to proper treatment, and in his 
own practice he has been eminently successful in accomplishing 
a cure. It commences with slight watery or thin mucous dis- 
charges from the nostrils ; matter collecting in the inner corner 
of the eyes ; eye-lid on the inner side of a very slight or yellow- 
ish red color; pulse feeble, with occasional paralysis of the 
hind extremities ; sore throat ; excessive debility ; membrane 
of the nose much reddened ; hard cough ; heart sometimes vio- 
lently agitated ; flanks heaving ; and feet sometimes hot ; thus 
producing all the symptoms of founder. 

For treatment, never bleed, as in nine cases out of ten, the 
animal dies. If inflammation runs high, as it sometimes does, 
use for several days the following : of tartar emetic and nitrate 
of potash, each two drachms, made into a ball with molasses 
and given at night. Give also in a pail of water one ounce of 
spirits of nitre twice a day ; or, if more convenient, two drachms 



INFLUENZA. 23£ 

of the extract of belladonna (nightshade) dissolved in the water. 
When the inflammation is reduced, give one of the following 
balls night and morning : of pulverized gentian root and nitrate 
of potassa, each an ounce ; pulverized Jamaica ginger, half an 
ounce ; ground fenugreek seeds six drachms ; mix with molasses, 
and divide into eight balls. In pure cases of debility (this 
being one of the serious symptoms of the disease), or in the 
early stages, previous to extensive inflammation being established, 
one of the following should be given twice a day : — sulphate of 
iron (green vitriol) two ounces ; pulverized ginger one ounce ; 
pulverized gentian root two ounces ; mix with molasses, and 
divide into eight balls. In cases where the lungs are affected, 
give theTollowing ball twice a day : of tartar emetic and pulver- 
ized digitalis (foxglove) each one scruple ; nitrate of potash three 
drachms; mix with molasses. Linseed tea, or oat-meal gruel 
should be given frequently. No hay should be given, unless 
the bowels are in good condition. If the liver is affected — - 
which may be known by the yellow tinge of the mucous mem- 
brane, dung small and hard, horse lying on his side, and occa- 
sionally looking at his side as if in pain, with occasional fits of 
uneasiness — the following may be given, but must not be re- 
peated ; of Barbadoes aloes three drachms, calomel and pulver- 
ized digitalis each half a drachm ; make into a ball with molasses. 
In all these cases where there is soreness or swelling of the 
throat, the parts should be freely blistered ; and the sides also, 
if the lungs are involved. This mode of treatment has proved 
very successful in the author's practice. 



240 BRONCHITIS. 

BRONCHITIS. 

The larynx (upper part of the windpipe), the trachea (wind- 
pipe), and the bronchial tubes (branches from the trachea into 
the lungs for the passage of air), are lined by one continuous 
membrane, called the mucous membrane, which secretes a thin 
mucous substance that always keeps the parts soft and moist. 
When this membrane becomes inflamed, the disease is named 
according to its location. If it is confined to the larynx (as 
has been before observed), it is termed laryngitis ; if to the 
windpipe, trachitis ; and if to the bronchial tubes, bronchitis. 
The trachea and bronchia are rarely diseased separately, the 
Inflammation generally extending from one to the other. We 
shall therefore treat of bronchitis as embracing trachitis like- 
wise. Even this disease rarely exists unmixed with others, in 
consequences of which it is often overlooked, or confounded 
with other diseases of a pulmonary character. 

Bronchitis is generally preceded by a shivering fit ; mouth 
hot, with more or less saliva ; discharge from the nose ; cough ; 
sore throat ; fever ; short breathing ; loss of appetite ; accele- 
rated pulse ; and membrane of nose and eyelids reddened. 

In treating this disease it is much safer to call in the veteri- 
nary surgeon, in consequence of the difficulty which the ordi- 
nary observer will experience in distinguishing it from other 
pulmonary diseases, and from the fact that the treatment 
varies with the changes that take place in the progress of the 
disease. It is not necessarily fatal ; yet the most trifling neg- 
lect or mistake in treatment may make it so. The average loss, 
if proper treatment is pursued, is not more than five per cent. 
Resort should never be had to bleeding in any form which the 



NASAL GLEET. 241 

disease may assume, although such treatment has been recom- 
mended by the highest authorities. 

If much fever is present, give the following ball : of nitre 
two drachms ; pulverized digitalis and tartar emetic each half 
a drachm ; solution of gum arabic sufficient to make the ball. 
This may be repeated if the desired effect is not produced in 
twelve hours. Apply to the throat, sides, and along the 
spine, strong mustard mixed with water to the consistence of 
cream, which may be repeated as often as necessary. The fly 
blister is also recommended ; but the author prefers mustard, 
as being so much quicker in its action. After the inflamma- 
tion has subsided, give one of the following powders twice a 
day : of pulverized gentian root and nitre, each one ounce ; 
pulverized Jamaica ginger, half an ounce ; caraway seeds six 
drachms. This course of treatment is perfectly safe in the 
hands of any horseman, though it will not reach all stages of 
the disease ; nor can any general directions be given better 
calculated to warrant a successful issue in these cases. 



3STASAL GLEET. 

''Nasal gleet is the name here given to those discharges from 
the nose, which are commonly preceded by some inflammatory 
or catarrhal attack of the air passages, in particular those of 
the head ; though there occur examples of their appearing 
without any such detectible precursors, originating, indeed, 
without any visible or apparent cause whatever ; in most cases 
they are apt to continue long after all signs of inflammation have 
died away. Gleet is more likely to supervene after a chronic, 
than after an acute, attack of catarrh, and to show itself in an 
16 



242 NASAL GLEET. 

adult or aged horse rather than in the young subject. Some- 
times the discharge comes from one nostril alone ; more usually 
from both. Sometimes the submaxillary glands (glands under 
the jaws), remain tumefied, and sometimes they are not. The 
Schneiderian membrane (membrane of the nose) discolored by 
inflammatory action, has become pallid and leaden-hued, but 
is free from all pustular or ulcerative indications. The dis- 
charged matter varies in quantity and quality in different in- 
dividuals, and even in the same horse at different stages of 
this disease. The ordinary gleet consists of a matter more 
mucous than purulent, remarkable for its whiteness, about the 
thickness of cream, and in some cases is smooth and uniform, 
in others clotty or lumpy ; in other cases it is yellow, and 
appears to contain in its composition more pus than mucus. 
At one time it will collect about the nostrils, and become 
ejected in flakes or masses in pretty regular succession ; at 
another time there is a good deal of irregularity in this re- 
spect, the running from the nose ceasing altogether for a 
while, as though the animal were cured, and then returning 
with double or treble force. Sometimes fetor is an offensive 
accompaniment of the discharge ; at other times no fetor is 
perceptible. The health does not suffer in the least ; on the 
contrary, it is one of the indications of this disease, that the 
horse eats and drinks, and has his spirits, as well as though 
he were quite free from complaint. 

Formerly, these cases were considered to be evidences of 
glanders, and were called chronic glanders ; many a horse 
having been destroyed under this mistaken impression. That 
a case of the kind might not turn to glanders, is, perhaps, 
more than can be asserted with certainty ; but that, so long as 



PNEUMONIA. 243 

it continues gleet, it is not glanders, I am fully persuaded ; 
and to show that it is not, I have been in more than one in- 
stance successful in bringing the case to a favorable issue." 
[Percival's Hippopathology.] 

The treatment recommended by veterinary writers has not 
been found successful in the author's practice ; nor, indeed, do 
they themselves appear to have encountered any better for- 
tune. That which has proved efficacious has, in all cases, been 
strictly tonic. Give the following powder night and morning 
for a month : of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), half a 
drachm ; pulverized gentian root, two drachms ; pulverized 
ginger, one drachm j mix for one dose : or, give night and 
morning, mixed in the feed, half-drachm doses of powdered nux 
vomica (commonly called Quaker button). There is no 
danger in giving this preparation to a horse, provided he does 
not have water for some time afterward, say half an hour ; and 
it very rarely fails. 



PNEUMONIA. 

By pneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs, is meant either 
a highly congested or an inflammatory condition of the lungs, 
arising from various causes, as high feeding, blanketing, close 
or badly ventilated stables, violent or extraordinary exercise, 
or sudden changes from heat to cold. Cold applied to the 
external surface of a heated animal drives the blood from the 
skin to the internal organs, often causing congestion of the 
lungs. Pulmonary diseases are more prevalent in the spring 
and fall, particularly if the w T eather be cold and damp. 

This disease is generally ushered in by a shivering fit ; the 
horse is sometimes attacked very suddenly ; he refuses his food ; 



244 PNEUMONIA. 

the respiration becomes disturbed, sometimes suddenly, at 
other times more slowly ; legs, ears, and muzzle cold ; cough 
sometimes present ; staring coat ; membrane of nose reddened 
or leadened-hued ; the animal hangs his head in or under the 
manger, stands with his feet wide apart, remaining in one 
position with no inclination to move. The pulse varies very 
much ; it is sometimes full and quick, at other times weak and 
scarcely perceptible. 

In these cases auscultation is found of the 
greatest advantage in enabling one to ^ ___J g| 
detect to a certainty the true c ondi- iHl =j 
tion of the parts 
affected. If the |p 
attack is sudden, jl! 
coming on after )B§§8jf 
any violent exer- jgf 
cise, and the pulse is jj| 
quick, weak, and scarce- 
ly perceptible ; by the THE trotting horse Lexington. 

application of the ear to the animal's side the case is 
decided, in the absence of all sounds, to be one of conges- 
tive pneumonia. In all these cases the less medicine which 
is used the better; they require the free use of the lancet, 
which must be promptly applied, or the animal dies. Blood 
must be taken until the animal begins to show symptoms 
of weakness; after which place him in a cool box with a 
pail of water, but nothing else, before him, the fresh air 
being all the medicine required. He will either speedily re- 
cover, or inflammation of the lungs will ensue. A second 
bleeding, notwithstanding the inflammatory action, is positively 




PLEURISY. 245 

injurious. As the disease assumes an inflammatory character, 
the breathing becomes more disturbed, the mouth hot, flanks 
heaving, and the nostrils expand and contract violently. 
Blisters must now be applied to the sides and breast, and 
those which will act quickly. The author prefers the follow- 
ing : of pulverized cantharides half an ounce ; lard one ounce ; 
croton oil twenty drops ; linseed oil sufficient to make it 
liquid. Divide the following into five parts, and give one 
part internally every two hours : liquor ammonia acetatis 
twelve ounces ; extract of belladonna one ounce ; water one 
pint. If there is no improvement in twelve hours, give one 
scruple of white hellebore with three drachms of nitre every 
four hours until its action is manifest. This remedy, however, 
is a dangerous one in the hands of any but the qualified prac- 
titioner. Instead of it, the tincture of aconite may be used — 
indeed, it is one of the very best remedies. Take of tincture 
of aconite half an ounce to an ounce of water ; give twenty 
drops on the tongue every three hours. Active purgatives 
should not be given ; injections, however, are very useful. 
The horse should be kept on a low diet for a few days, as 
bran mashes, carrots, or green food ; but no hay should be 
allowed, and a pail of water should be kept before him. This 
is regarded by the author in all inflammatory diseases as one 
of our best medicines. 



PLEUEISY. 

By pleurisy is meant an inflammation of the pleura, or mem- 
brane covering the lungs and internal walls of the chest, without 
the lungs being involved in the inflammation ; when, however, 
they partake of its inflammatory action, it is styled pleuro- 



246 PLEURISY. 

pneumonia. The former disease rarely exists in a pure form ; 
and as in a work like the present it is unnecessary to consider 
the delicately drawn distinctions between the two types, both 
will be treated as if they constituted in reality but one disease. 

Pleurisy may exist in an acute or chronic form. The attack 
may be sudden, or gradual, the animal manifesting indisposi- 
tion several days previous. A hard drive, over-exertion, 
exposure to cold, washing in cold water when warm, a fall, 
fracture of a rib, a punctured wound, &c, are all causes of 
pleurisy. 

The horse manifests uneasiness ; there is a violent heaving of 
the flanks, a looking round at his sides, with an anxious expres- 
sion of the face ; pulse quick and wiry ; body, mouth, and breath 
hot ; sweating in different parts of the body ; a high state of 
nervous irritation, the animal pawing, lying down but rising 
immediately ; a pressure against the side causes pain. A pecu- 
liar symptom is observable in this disease ; the right fore-leg 
differs in temperature from the left, and such is the case with 
the hind ones ; if the right fore-leg is warm, the left hind one 
will also be warm, and the others cold. 

Experience proves that blood-letting in this disease is only 
opening the vein to let life escape ; for if by this means we suc- 
ceed in relieving the inflammatory action, the loss of blood so 
prostrates the system that the animal from pure debility becomes 
the victim of hydrothorax, or dropsy of the chest, living a mis- 
erable life for several weeks, perhaps months, to die at last from 
the accumulation of fluid in the chest. Bleeding, therefore, is 
uncalled for, and in fact is positively injurious. The early ap- 
plication of blisters to the sides is very important ; and for this 
purpose the same preparation will be found serviceable as has 



HYDROTHORAX. 24f 

been recommended in the case of inflammation of the lungs. 
The application of blankets saturated with hot water and kept 
round the body for several hours is very beneficial. Give one 
of the following powders on the tongue every hour : — of calomel 
one drachm ; lactucarium (the juice of the common garden 
lettuce) two drachms ; divide into three powders. In two hours 
after giving the last powder, give the following drench : liquor 
ammonia acetatis four ounces ; sulphuric ether one ounce ; 
tincture of aconite ten drops ; water one pint. If no improve- 
ment takes place within six hours, give half a drachm of the 
extract of belladonna in a pail of water every three hours ; con- 
tinue this until the pupils of the eye dilate, or a favorable 
change otherwise takes place. If the pulse is weak, give two 
ounces of nitrous ether; one ounce tincture of opium ; and half 
a pint of tepid water ; but do not repeat the dose. The ani- 
mal must be kept upon a low diet ; no hay or corn should be 
given ; carrots and green food may be used sparingly ; give 
water frequently ; injections of soap and water are necessary 
from the first attack. After the animal becomes convalescent, 
strong tonics must be given, as the case may even then terminate 
in dropsy of the chest. Nux vomica should be given in half- 
drachm doses in the feed at night ; or half-drachm doses of the 
iodide of potassa dissolved in a pail of water may be given three 
times a dav. 



HYDEOTHOEAX. 

Dropsy of the chest, or hydrothorax, is usually the termina- 
tion of pleurisy in cases where bleeding or long-continued seda^ 
tive medication has been practised. The fluid contained within 
the chest, if following an acute attack of pleurisy, is a beauti- 



248 THICK WIND. 

fully clear, bright yellow fluid. In sub-acute cases there is 
considerable lymph floating in it, thus rendering it turbid. The 
quantity varies in different cases, from a quart or two to several 
gallons. 

In this disease the animal stands with legs straddling ; the 
breathing is short and quick, and as the water accumulates the 
respiration becomes more labored ; pulse small and quick ; stag- 
gering gait; breast, belly, and sheath swelled, leaving after 
pressure the impression of the fingers ; if the ear is applied to 
the side, no sounds are heard. 

No course of treatment can be suggested which would be 
likely to succeed in the hands of the amateur ; this disease far 
too often proving fatal in the most skillful hands. 



THICK WIND. 

This disease differs in its action and effects from broken wind 
or heaves, though they are frequently confounded. It is cha- 
racterized by a quickened respiration, in consequence of the 
obstruction existing in the air passages as the termination of 
inflammatory action. The capacity of the lungs is often very 
considerably diminished ; the air-cells become filled up or obli- 
terated ; and the bronchial tubes become thickened ; so that the 
same amount of atmospheric air cannot be admitted, thus giving 
rise to the quick, blowing action witnessed in this disease. "It 
is astonishing," says Mr. Spooner, "what great alteration of 
the structure of the lungs may exist, and the horse be still able 
to perform his accustomed work. I remember a horse that for 
some months worked in a fast coach, doing a stage of twelve 
miles daily in about an hour and a quarter. He was seized 
with inflammation of the lungs, and died in about sixteen hours. 



BROKEN WIND. 249 

On examining the body after death, it appeared that one half of 
the lungs for a long time past must have been perfectly useless, 
for the purposes of respiration, being so completely hepatized 
as to be heavier than water." 

But little can be done in the way of treatment for a thick- 
winded horse. It is important to keep the bowels regular; and 
by feeding with good sweet provender some relief is usually 
afforded . 



ROARING AND WHISTLING. 

There are different stages of the same disease, arising from a 
thickening of the windpipe, or of the membranes of the larynx, 
rendering the passages smaller at the diseased parts. These 
diseases are generally the termination of neglected bronchitis, 
laryngitis, and all diseases of a pulmonary or catarrhal cha- 
racter ; ulceration of the glottis (a portion of the larynx) is also 
a cause of roaring. 

If these diseases are caused by tight reining, the bearing rein 
should be left off; if they arise from other causes, there is but 
little prospect of benefiting the animal, except in cases where 
the thickened parts are in an inflammatory condition, when 
relief will be afforded by the application of mustard plasters or 
fly blisters to the parts affected. 



BROKEN WIND. 
The cause of broken wind, or heaves, has never been satis- 
factorily ascertained ; some writers attributing it to functional 
derangement of the digestive organs, others to rupture of the 
air-cells of the lungs, while yet a third class to a spasmodic 
action of the diaphragm, a muscle dividing the chest from the 




THE ATTACK AND DEFENSE. 



250 BROKEN WIND. 

abdomen. In this disease there is a short dry cough, which is 
characteristic, and familiar to all practised ears. 

It is a singular fact, well known to all 
H Western horse-owners, that this disease has 
jj no existence on the prairies of 
Indiana, Illinois, and other 
Western States ; and broken- 
winded horses that have 
been taken to those sec- 
tions soon get well, and re- 
main so. 

The symptoms of this dis- 
ease are, a peculiar, double- 
bellows motion of the flanks; respiration quicker than natural; 
a short peculiar cough ; and frequent passing of wind. 

In its treatment the digestive organs should be kept in as 
healthy a condition as possible. The throat should be ex- 
amined ; and if by merely rubbing the sides of the throat a 
cough is excited, the chances for a cure are favorable ; but if 
the windpipe requires a squeeze in order to produce the cough, 
there is little use in attempting a cure. Use upon the throat 
three times a week for five or six weeks the following salve well 
rubbed in : iodine ointment two ounces ; blue (mercurial) oint- 
ment one ounce ; mix well together, and make thin with oil. 
Give internally every night one of the following powders : of 
sulphate of copper and pulverized ginger, each one ounce ; pul- 
verized gentian root two ounces ; divide into sixteen powders. 
The benefits of this course of treatment have been very marked 
in the author's practice. In all cases no hay should be allowed, 
but wheat or oat straw will be found of great advantage. 



INFLAMMATION OP THE STOMACH. 251 

DISEASES OF THE STOMACH AND INTESTINES. 



IISTFIiAMMATION OF THE STOMACH. 

Inflammation of the stomach, or gastritis, is usually the result 
of swallowing poisons, or powerful stimulants. Mr. James 
Clark relates a case of death occurring from inflammation of 
the stomach in a horse in consequence of being drenched with 
a pint of vinegar ; and another case where death was caused by 
giving a drench which contained half an ounce of spirits of 
hartshorn. A correspondent writing to the Turf Register in 
1855, recommends the use of nux vomica, to destroy worms ; 
to which the editor appends the following remarks : — " We 
must caution those not acquainted with the deleterious proper- 
ties of nux vomica against giving that drug in large doses. 
Three nuts or buttons weigh eighty grains, and we have re- 
corded evidence that sixty grains of the powder have killed a 
horse in a short time. Hoffman mentions that two doses, of 
fifteen grains each, proved fatal to the patient." The cause of 
these fatal terminations was doubtless some morbid condition 
of the stomach at the time the medicine was given. " I have 
known," says White, "a horse quickly destroyed by being 
drenched with a quart of beer in which one or two ounces of 
tobacco had been infused, and have seen other horses take 
much larger doses without any ill effects." The author has 
known cases where bots were supposed to have given rise to 
inflammation of the stomach. 

The symptoms from poisoning are extreme distress and rest- 
lessness, with a perfect loathing of all food ; the animal breaks 
out in cold sweats, lies down but rises quickly, and becomes 



252 INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 

quickly prostrated in strength ; the pulse is quick and oppressed; 
purging may, or may not, exist. 

The treatment will depend upon the cause of the attack, and 
should in all cases be intrusted to the hands of a competent 
practitioner, if one can be obtained. Where poison is sus- 
pected, it is better to give plenty of gruel, linseed tea, starch 
water, chalk water, with a couple of ounces of tincture of opium. 
The lancet should not be used, as the animal is already in a 
debilitated condition, which bleeding would only increase, 
thereby preventing the possibility of a speedy recovery. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 

Enteritis, or inflammation of the bowels, called by farriers 
red colic, admits of three divisions : enteritis, or inflammation 
of the muscular coat of the intestines ; peritonitis, or inflamma- 
tion of the outer coat of the intestines and the membrane lining 
the cavity of the abdomen ; and dysentery, or inflammation of 
the inner or mucous coat of the intestines. 

The muscular and peritoneal coats are those usually involved 
in inflammation of the bowels ; but the muscular is more fre- 
quently involved than the peritoneal coat. The causes of this 
disease are washing when warm, or swimming in a river, drink- 
ing cold water when in a heated condition, over exertion, cos- 
tiveness, dry food such as hay with little water, worms, calcareous 
concretious, and metastasis. 

The disease is sometimes preceded by a shivering fit ; there is 
loss of appetite ; hot skin ; continued restlessness ; mouth hot and 
dry ; membranes of nose and eyes very much reddened ; pawing ; 
the animal lies down and gets up frequently, kicks at his belly, 
looks frequently at his sides ; no cessation of pain ; pulse hard, 



INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 253 

small, and wiry, often beating one hundred times or more a 
minute ; respiration quickened ; bowels constipated ; dung small, 
hard, and dry ; extremities cold ; and the urine highly colored 
and passed with difficulty. As the disease progresses, the in- 
tensity of the symptoms very much increases. The animal is 
now covered with perspiration, which is succeeded by a chilly 
state ; the pulse becomes quicker ; the belly begins to swell ; the 
entire system becomes prostrated, and the animal dies, frequently 
in the most violent manner. 

These cases require prompt and active treatment, for the 
disease runs its course very rapidly, often terminating in the 
course of ten or twelve hours. If the costiveness yields early, 
the pulse becomes less frequent, soft, and full ; the extremities 
regain a moderate temperature, attended with remission of 
pain, and the case will be likely to have a favorable termina- 
tion. It is important that this disease should be distinguished 
from an attack of colic, since the symptoms of one very much 
resemble those of the other ; the pulse, however, is the surest 
guide in distinguishing these diseases. The ordinary mode of 
treating colic would be highly injurious in the treatment of 
inflammation of the bowels. 

In this disease copious bleedings are necessary. A large 
opening should be made in the jugular vein, and from six to 
eight quarts of blood taken, the quantity varying with the 
size and condition of the animal ; the hardened dung should 
be removed by back-raking, after which tobacco-smoke injec- 
tions are of great service ; where these are not convenient, 
injections of soap and water may be used, or, what is better, 
an injection of two gallons of water with six ounces of tincture 
of arnica. One pint of linseed oil may now be given ; and if the 



254 INFLAMMATION OP THE BOWELS. 

case be a very severe one, and likely to terminate in death 
unless relief be afforded, ten drops of croton oil may be added 
to the drench ; but this last preparation should not be given 
except in very desperate cases, as of life or death. Aloes 
should not be given unless combined with opium ; and even 
then this treatment is not advisable. 

Blankets well saturated with hot water should be applied 
to the abdomen, and kept up for two or three hours ; the legs 
should be well rubbed with cayenne pepper or strong mus- 
tard, and bandaged with strips of flannel ; if there is no im- 
provement in the course of four or five hours, give one drachm 
of chloroform in one pint of linseed oil, which may, if neces- 
sary, be followed in two hours by the following ball, mixed 
with molasses : one drachm of pulverized opium ; half a drachm 
of calomel ; and two drachms of linseed meal. The injections 
should be continued throughout ; give linseed tea to drink, 
instead of water ; soft mashes and new grass, if obtainable, may 
be given sparingly, but no hay, until the bowels are opened. 
The animal should not be worked for some days after recovery, 
as this disease is apt to return if he is put to work or exposed 
too soon. An attack of this character does not necessarily 
render the animal less useful or valuable after his restoration 
to health. 

Peritonitis differs but little from enteritis. The horse is 
more affected with pain ; the pawing, rolling, and kicking at 
the belly are most violent; the eye is wild in appearance; 
tenderness is evinced on pressing the abdomen ; the pulse is 
full and throbbing ; the dung is small and hard, and covered 
with a slimy substance. The same course of treatment should 
be pursued as is recommended for enteritis. 



DIARRHOEA. 255 

Dysentery (molten grease, or inflammation of the intestines), 
is often confounded with diarrhoea. It is sometimes accom- 
panied with purging, but this is by no means an invariable 
symptom. The most common causes are irritation, translation 
or obstructed perspiration, and the administration of improper 
purging medicines, causing undue irritation, which terminates 
in inflammation. The animal usually evinces but little pain ; 
the pulse is quick and small ; there is sometimes purging, 
with great prostration of strength. 

The belly should be well rubbed with the following wash : 
half a pound of strong mustard ; four ounces of spirits of 
ammonia ; and one pint of water. The following drink may 
be given every three hours until some improvement is ob- 
served, when it should be discontinued at once : of prepared 
chalk and tincture of ginger each one ounce ; powdered opium 
one drachm ; tincture of catechu half an ounce ; tincture of 
red pepper two drachms ; and one pint of water. Throw up 
injections of two ounces of laudanum in half a pint of water, 
frequently, and give thin gruel to drink. No blood should 
be taken under any circumstances. 



DIARRHCEA. 

This disease often arises in the absence of any inflammatory 
action upon the mucous surface of the intestines ; and hence 
the distinction cannot be made by the ordinary observer be- 
tween it and dysentery, if purging should be present. In 
order to obviate this difficulty we recommend only such reme- 
dies as are calculated to answer either case, without the pos- 
sibility of doing injury by- the administration of medicines. 



256 



INORDINATE APPETITE. 



The causes of diarrhoea are over-exertion, exposure to cold, 
drinking freely of pump or spring water, and over doses of 
physic. 

For treatment, give in one pint 

of thin gruel, one ounce of pre- 

p are d 

chalk, 

half an 

PS 

-ounce 

of tinc- 

of 










GMAR PASHA, THE TURKISH CHIEFTAIN. 



^^^ss^^^i opium, 
and one ounce of tincture of 
g ginger. Gruel, starch, or arrow- 
root should be freely given ; good 



sweet hay is very advantageous, 
but no grass or bran mashes should be allowed. 



iarosDiarATE appetite. 
Loss of appetite is soon observed aud complained of by the 
horse-owner, and in too many instances gives occasion for im- 
proper medication. Some horses are particularly choice in 
the selection of their food, refusing that which is poor, or 
daintily and languidly picking it over. Horses sometimes eat 
slowly and daintily in consequence of weakness of the diges- 



PALSY OF THE STOMACH. 25 7 

tire organs ; in such cases a handful of camomile flowers occa- 
sionally mixed in the food will be of great benefit. Boiled 
potatoes and the like will also be found beneficial in such 
cases. 

The disease (for it is no less) of a voracious or depraved 
appetite arises from a morbid condition of the digestive 
organs, and is generally regarded by horsemen as a very desir- 
able feature. The owner is greatly surprised, under such cir- 
cumstances, that his animal does not thrive. A distinction 
must be made between a healthy and a morbid appetite. The 
former is indicated by the animal being ready for his food as 
soon as he comes in from work, and eating his allowance, if 
good sweet provender, with evident relish ; but the latter is 
indicated by a constant craving for food and water, without 
regard to the quality of either, the animal oftentimes in addi- 
tion to his usual allowance eating up the litter from under 
him, which is frequently in a very filthy condition. He is 
almost constantly craving water, and will drink even from a 
stagnant pool. We find him tucked up in the flanks, or carry- 
ing a big belly ; his dung is often soft, slimy, and fetid ; he 
stales largely, and his urine is often very foul ; he is dull, lazy, 
and stupid, performing his work languidly or unwillingly. 
Such horses are more than any others subject to the disease 
next mentioned. 



PALSY OF THE STOMACH. 

In this disease, arising from a voracious appetite, the 
stomach becomes overloaded with food, and distended beyond 
its natural capacity. This is seldom observed until the symp- 
toms are so plainly marked as not to be mistaken, developing 
17 



258 RUPTURE OF THE STOMACH. 

in many instances the disease known as stomach staggers, 
which has been already mentioned. There are rarely any 
symptoms of acute pain ; the pulse remaining in nearly its 
natural condition ; respiration is but slightly disturbed ; there 
is great heaviness of the head; the horse stands with the 
fore feet well under him, and appears to be weak in the knees ; 
the membranes of the mouth and eyes present a yellow or 
orange appearance, indicating the liver as involved in the 
disease ; the urine is highly colored ; and in some cases there 
is paralysis of the eye, and often of the extremities. 

The treatment required is much the same as in stomach 
staggers ; in fact, this disease is the origin of the last named. 
Attention should be directed in the first place to opening the 
bowels, which requires a strong cathartic, made in the follow- 
ing manner: of Barbadoes aloes one ounce; of pulverized 
gentian root two drachms; pulverized ginger one drachm; 
mix with molasses. Give no food for at least forty-eight 
hours ; a little water may be occasionally given. In twelve 
hours after the ball, give one scruple of calomel on the 
tongue, which may be repeated at intervals of twelve hours for 
two or three days. 



BTJPTUBE OF THE STOMACH. 

Rupture of the stomach or diaphragm is caused by the 
stomach and bowels being distended with food far beyond 
their natural capacity, or by an accumulation of gas in the 
stomach, as in flatulent colic. The diaphragm, or midriff, is 
often ruptured in cases of flatulence, as is the case also with 
the intestines. As nothing in the way of treatment can be 
offered in these cases, all speculation upon them is superfluous. 



CALCULUS, OR STONY* CONCRETIONS. 259 

CALCULUS, OK STOlfY CONCRETIONS. 

Calculous deposits are not unfrequently fouud in the stomach, 
intestines, bladder, kidneys, liver, brain, and in the glands, 
more particularly in the salivary glands ; often giving rise to 
much difficulty, particularly when situated in the brain, salivary 
glands, or bladder. 

Stones in the stomach and intestines of the horse are quite 
common. The author has seen several weighing from one to 
three or four pounds ; and Mr. Spooner mentions one in his 
possession weighing little less than six pounds. There were 
found by the author in the stomach of a horse which died of 
colic, one hundred and fifty-one barrel nails, two buttons, and 
three small calculi. This horse belonged to a baker, and had 
been fed with the scrapings of the shop. The nails presented a 
very singular appearance, many of them being entirely covered 
with calculous deposits, and others covered with the same 
deposits on the heads and points, presenting a body with two 
heads. 

The presence of these foreign bodies in the stomach and 
intestines occasions frequent .attacks of colic, and sometimes 
produces inflammation of the bowels. Miller's horses are 
supposed to be most subject to these accumulations. These 
abdominal calculi generally have a metallic nucleus, are com- 
posed of the triple phosphates, and are generally round and 
smooth. When first taken from the intestines, they are of a 
brown or greenish color, but they soon become white. When 
a horse is subject to frequent attacks of colic, not occasioned 
by feeding upon corn, these accumulations may reasonably be 
suspected to be the cause. 



260 STRANGULATION OF THE INTESTINES. 

HAIB BALL. 

Hair balls are occasionally found in the stomach and intes- 
tines of a horse, generally accumulating around a metallic nu- 
cleus. There are several in the possession of the author where 
a piece of iron is the nucleus, and one where a piece of coal 
afforded the same basis. These balls occasion the same disor- 
ders, preceded by the same symptoms, and followed by the same 
results as the calculus. The animal may recover from a number 
of attacks of colic, and die at last from the same cause. 



STEANGULATION OP THE INTESTINES. 

On examining horses after death from an attack of colic, the 
small intestines are occasionally found tangled in a knot so as 
to cause a complete obstruction in the passages. This gives 
rise to colic pains, terminating in inflammation of the bowels 
and death. The small intestines being but loosely attached by 
the peritoneum, their outer covering, have free play in all direc- 
tions, whence the tendency arises to these accidents ; for the 
author believes them to spring from accidental rather than 
natural causes. There may be a simple twisting, or the intes- 
tine may be firmly tied into a knot. 

There is another species, called intro-susception, or intra-sus- 
ception, which is a slipping of one portion of the intestines into, 
or inside of, another portion, thus completely blocking up the 
passage. There are no symptoms by which either of these 
conditions may be known ; and such cases are therefore treated 
as cases of ordinary colic, or of inflammation of the bowels, as 
the case may be. Where, however, such a condition of the 
parts exists, all treatment will be useless. 



SPASMODIC COLIC. 261 

SPASMODIC COLIC. 

This disease, called by farriers gripes, cramp, fret, &c, is a 
cramp or spasm of the muscular structure of the intestines, most 
generally of the small ones. The most common causes are the 
application of cold water to the surface of the body, drinking 
cold water when in a heated condition, costiveness, stones in 
the intestines, hair ball, strictures of the intestines, unwholesome 
food, &c. 

The premonitory symptoms are sudden in their nature. The 
animal is first observed pawing violently, showing evident symp- 
toms of great distress, shifting his position almost constantly, 
and manifesting a desire to lie down. In a few minutes these 
symptoms disappear, and the animal is again easy. But the 
same uneasiness again returns, increasing in severity until the 
animal cannot be kept upon his feet; the pulse is full, but 
scarcely altered from the normal standard. As the disease ad- 
vances, the symptoms become more severe, the animal at times 
throwing himself with great force upon the ground as though 
he were shot, looking anxiously at his sides, sometimes snap- 
ping at them with his teeth, and striking his belly with his hind 
feet. The symptoms vary but little from those of inflammation 
of the bowels, the condition of the pulse and the remission of 
pain being the distinguishing features. The extremities are of 
a natural temperature ; there are frequent but ineffectual efforts 
to stale, and a cold sweat bedews the body. 

In this disease it is necessary to back-rake, and throw up the 
fundament injections of castile soap and water. Give internally 
two ounces of nitrous ether, one ounce of tincture of opium, and 
half a pint of water mixed, which may be repeated in twenty 



262 FLATULENT COLIC. 

minutes with the addition of one ounce of tincture of aloes. 
Rub the belly well with mustard and water ; if in half an hour 
there is no improvement, and no symptoms of inflammation are 
present, give of lactucarium half an ounce, of Jamaica ginger 
half an ounce, and one pint of the best rum or gin ; shake well 
together, and give one-third with twice the quantity of water 
every hour until relief is obtained. 



FLATULENT COLIC. 

This is an accumulation of gas in the stomach and intestines, 
occurring more often in the spring and fall than at any other 
season. Horses fed on corn are most sub- ^"^^±=51^ 
ject to these attacks, in consequence of this llSSS^f^ z - 

stomach and intes- ^§32^=^= 

SIR ARCHY, THE GODOLPHIN OF AMERICA. 

tines to such an extent as to cause the diaphragm, or walls of 
the stomach to give way, and the death of the animal ensues. 
The author has known cases to terminate in death in less than 
half an hour from the observation of the first symptoms, so 
rapid is the course of this disease. The symptoms are the same 
in spasmodic colic, with the exception of the swelling of the 
abdomen. The same medicines are to be used, with the addi- 
tion of from one to two drachms of chloride of lime in each dose, 



worms. 263 

according to the urgency of the symptoms. This, if given in 
time, will generally prove efficacious. Tincture of hartshorn 
and spirits of turpentine are recommended by some veterinary 
authors, and are excellent remedies ; but as much injury has 
been caused by their use by inexperienced persons, the author 
would not advise their use since the animal may be killed by an 
improper administration of them. 



WORMS. 

Four kinds of worms are found in the horse, viz : the lumbrici, 
which very much resemble the common earth-worm in form ; 
ascarides, so called from their supposed resemblance to a thread ; 
taenia, or tape-worm, of which variety but little is known, as it 
is very rare ; and, lastly, the persecuted bots, considered by 
farmers and horsemen the greatest of pests and the most dan- 
gerous of all the species. 

The lumbrici are most generally found in the small intestines, 
where they sometimes do much mischief by their irritating effects. 
The author was recently shown a very remarkable specimen of 
these worms by his friend, W. W. Fraley, Y. S. This specimen 
was some two yards long, consisting of a portion of the small 
intestines so completely filled with these worms as apparently 
to render it almost impossible for anything to pass through it, 
the worms having accumulated in thousands. These worms are 
from eight to ten inches in length, round and perfectly white. 
There appear to be two varieties of the lumbrici. The other 
variety is similar in form and length, but has numerous brown 
transverse lines, at about equal distances from each other, along 
its entire length. 

The ascarides are found in the large intestines, and are white 



264 WOBMS. 

worms from one to three inches in length. It is a somewhat 
singular fact, that although these worms are usually found in 
the large intestines, their origin, apparently, is in the stomach 
of the horse. On opening horses after death, tumors are often 
found in the stomach, which upon being cut open will be found 
to contain either a thick whitish matter, or knots of small 
worms, from half an inch to an inch in length, of precisely the 
same appearance as that of the ascarides, and believed by the 
author to be identical with them. 

The symptoms of worms are a rough, harsh, staring coat ; 
irregular or depraved appetite ; a whitish, or yellowish white, 
shining substance sometimes observable about the fundament, 
accompanied by a disposition on the part of the animal to rub 
the tail ; breath occasionally hot and fetid ; and in some cases 
a dry, short cough. The animal becomes poor in flesh and 
spirits. 

Various modes of treatment have been adopted with but little 
benefit. The remedies which have become most popular are 
tartar emetic, calomel, turpentine, an infusion of Indian pink, 
arsenic, green vitriol, &c. That which has usually been found 
most successful in the author's practice is to give one of the fol- 
lowing powders for three successive nights ; of calomel three 
drachms ; of tartar emetic one drachm ; mix and divide into 
three powders. Twenty -four hours after, give the following 
purgative ball : of Barbadoes aloes six drachms ; pulverized 
ginger two drachms ; and pulverized gentian root one drachm. 
Oil of turpentine in doses of two ounces has been very highly 
recommended by some authors ; but this the author regards as 
a dangerous remedy, from its tendency to produce inflammation 



bots. 265 

of the stomach or bowels. Too many horses have been killed 
by its destructive agency to render its use advisable. 




BOTS. 

These are the larvae of the gad-fly. During the summer 
months, when the horse is at grass, the parent fly is seen busily 
engaged in depositing its eggs upon the 
hairs of the animal in such places as are 
easily reached by his mouth. This seems 
to be an instinctive feature in this insect. 
The legs, shoulders, and body are the parts 
selected for this purpose. The gad-fly is 
seen hovering in an upright position when C0MM01f gad-fly or bot. 
about to deposit her egg ; she then darts upon the horse, fixing 
the egg to the hairs by means of a glutinous substance ; she 
again prepares another, which is deposited in like manner, until 
many hundreds are observed covering the hairs of the animal. 
The rapidity with which these eggs are prepared and deposited 
is astonishing. They are taken into the mouth by the animal 
biting or licking himself or his mate, and are hatched upon the 
tongue, or taken into the stomach and there hatched. If the 
eggs are recently produced, they pass into the stomach before 
they are hatched ; but if they remain for a considerable time 
upon the hairs, they are hatched by the warmth of the tongue, 
and they pass into the stomach, where they are developed. 
This fact may be easily and satisfactorily proven by taking the 
newly deposited egg in the hand, and then applying a warm 
fluid ; when it will be observed that the egg is softened or dis- 
solved, but does not produce the bot ; whereas, if the egg be 



266 bots. 

old, it will hatch in the hand. The investigations of Mr. Bracy 

Clark, V. S., have thrown much additional light upon the 

natural history of these parasites. 

The dread entertained of this species of worms by farmers 

and horsemen arises from the fact that so many useless books 
have been published, purporting to be guides to the 
farmer and horseman, many of which attribute the 
death of a majority of horses to ravages of the bot, ' 
and give as symptoms of their presence those which 
characterize inflammation of the bowels, kidneys, blad- 
der, and the like. To this circumstance is to be 
attributed the vast distinction of life by drenching and 
physicking the animal for bots. Now, a rational view 
of the subject leads us but to one conclusion, viz., that 

eggs on the stomach of the horse is the natural habita- 



E01GS 



A HAIR. 

tion of the bot, and that it cannot be, or is not, MAGNIFIED - 
developed anywhere else. This being the case, it is reasonable 
to suppose that inasmuch as the animal apparently suffers 
no inconvenience from their presence in his stomach, they 
were intended to serve some good purpose, rather than to do 
mischief. Indeed, without going to the extreme of asserting, 
as does Mr. Clarke, that bots are " always harmless," it may 
be safely asserted as the unanimous opinion of veterinary sur- 
geons (farriers are not included), the world over, that they are 
comparatively harmless, and that when they do become injurious, 
it is almost always preceded by some morbid condition of the 
digestive organs. This may either arise from disease, or from 
enormous accumulations of bots, which are sometimes so great 
as to completely block up the pyloric orifice, or opening from 
the stomach into the intestines. 



BOTS. 



267 



CATERPII, 
FULL SIZE 



There are no symptoms by which the existence of bots is in- 
dicated, except it be in the spring, when they pass from the 
horse by the fundament, assuming again the form of a chrysa- 
lis to re-produce the parent fly. As has already been 
stated, the symptoms of other diseases, as iuflam- 
^SBS mat i° n °f tne bowels, &c, are often assigned as indicat- 
v JS$^i ing the presence of bots, but although bots may some- 
times give rise to these conditions, it is worse than 
folly to jump at the probable cause in such cases and 
LAK > say that it is a case of bots because a horse looks at 

ZE. 

his sides and the like. When such an instance is 
encountered, no matter whether it arise from bots or not, the 
animal must be treated for the inflammation which is present. 
If we succeed in controlling it, and restoring the stomach to 
healthy action, the bots are no longer troublesome ; but if, on 
the contrary, we commence drenching the animal for bots, the 
chances are that we shall kill him. Morbid conditions of the 

stomach will sometimes so incom- 
mode these little creatures as to 
cause them to escape from their un- 
pleasant situation, which is com- 
monly effected by perforating the 
walls of the stomach and allowing 
the fluids to escape into the abdo- 
men, in which case no medical agent 
will save the animal's life. Fortu- 
nately, however, these cases but 
rarely occur. The author has met 
with but a solitary case in an experience of ten years where 
death could be attributed to the action of bots. 

We know, moreover, from frequent experiments that the 




CATERPILLAR OR LARVAE ADHERING 
TO THE LINING OF THE STOMACH. 



268 DISEASES OP THE LIVER. 

horse bot is more tenacious of life than even the cat, which is 

^-rflSSK^^^^ popularly endowed with nine lives. The 

jWll C live bot has been immersed in spirits of tur- 

* S^^^ pentine, alcohol, nitric and muriatic acid, and 

the bed gad-fly. many other equally powerful fluids, and yet 

he still adhered to life with marvelous tenacity. If, then, it 

were possible to detect the presence of bots by any 

marked symptoms, the attempt to remove them would 

certainly be hazardous to the life of the animal. The 

author has known cases of flatulent colic to be treated 

for bots, when, upon opening the stomach after the 

death which inevitably ensued, not a solitary bot was 






CATERPILLAR OP fo fe f fl> j fc ^jj fe j^ . ^^ ^ {r 

THE RED GAD-FLT. 

large cities, where horses are not indulged in a run at grass it 
is no unusual occurrence to find their stomachs entirely free 
from bots. 



DISEASES OF THE LITER. 

Diseases of the liver are of very common occurrence in the 
horse, although the singularity of the internal structure of that 
animal renders it less liable to jaundice than the human being. 
The horse possesses no gall-bladder ; instead of such a reservoir 
it has simply a gall-duct, called the hepatic duct, which enters 
that portion of the intestines called the duodenum about six 
inches from the stomach, so that the gall is emptied into the 
bowels as fast as it is secreted. Various opinions have been ex- 
pressed touching this singular arrangement in the liver of the 
horse, any examination of which would be out of place in the 
present work. We proceed therefore to the mention of such 
diseases as come apparently under the above head. 



INFLAMMATION OP THE LIVER. 269 

INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVEB. 

Hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver, does not generally 
exist as a primary affection, though it is frequently found as a 
sympathetic one, being not uncommonly connected with epi- 
demics, or epizootic diseases, particularly in that which is known 
to horsemen as pink-eye distemper. 

The most common cause of this disease is a fullness of blood, 
or a plethoric condition of the system, in consequence of which 
too much blood is sent to the liver; want of exercise, and too 
high feeding, particularly with corn, are also causes of inflam- 
mation of this important organ. 

The symptoms of this disease are more obscure than those 
of any other part, and the difficulty is materially enhanced by 
the inability of the animal to assist us with his tongue. Still, 
by close observation we can trace the symptoms with such a 
degree of accuracy as to render our treatment almost a cer- 
tainty. The mouth and breath are hot ; the extremities cold ; 
the membrane lining the eyelids highly injected, presenting an 
orange-red appearance ; the pulse rises from seventy to one 
hundred or more a minute, and is soft and full ; the appetite 
lost; the animal looks wistfully and deploringly at his sides; 
lies down, but gets up again directly ; the respiration at times 
is perfectly tranquil, at other times slightly disturbed, and at 
others again very much disturbed, and distressing to the ani- 
mal — so that, in fact, the amateur cannot be governed by this 
symptom, — there is usually much tenderness of the right side ; 
and the dung small, hard, and generally dark-colored. 

In the acute stage the animal is generally in a state of 
plethora, in consequence of which a small quantity of blood 



270 JAUNDICE. 

may be taken to good advantage ; but in the absence of 
plethora he must not be bled ; a blister may be applied to the 
sides, or the application of creosote will be found serviceable. 
Injections of castile soap and water should be used occasion- 
ally until the bowels are opened. Give every four hours one 
of the following balls : of Barbadoes aloes six drachms ; 
calomel three drachms ; mix with molasses, and divide into 
twelve parts. Keep the body warm, and bandage the legs 
with flannel ; turn into a loose box stall, where the atmosphere 
is pure. When convalescent, give one of the following balls 
night and morning : of sulphate of iron two ounces ; pulver- 
ized gentian root one and a half ounces ; pulverized Jamaica 
ginger one ounce ; and pulverized anise seed one ounce : mix 
with molasses, and divide into sixteen parts. 



JAUNDICE. 

This disease depends upon an obstruction of the biliary ex- 
cretions, causing a yellow discoloration of the mucous mem- 
brane, fat, ligaments, and other tissues of the body; it will 
oftener be found in connection with other diseases than dis- 
tinct and independent of them, although it does occasionally 
exist in a pure or unmixed form, the symptoms of which are 
not at first observed by the horseman on account of their 
obscurity. 

The lining membranes of the eyelids and lips are of a yellow 
or orange color, extending even to the white of the eye ; the 
dung pale, small, and bally ; bowels generally constipated ; 
appetite lost or languid ; the animal hangs his head, is dull 
and mopy, and becomes very poor in flesh. 



HEPATIRRHGEA. 271 

In the treatment of this disease the principal reliance is 
upon calomel j two drachms of which made into a bolus with 
flaxseed meal and molasses should be given, followed in 
twenty-four hours by a purging ball. The animal should have 
moderate exercise daily ; his body should be kept warm ; and 
if there be pain in the right side, apply a blister ; if necessary, 
the calomel may be repeated in scruple doses once a week. 



HEPATIERHCEA. 

This is a rupture of the peritoneal coat of the liver, and 
hemorrhage from it. It occurs most generally in aged horses, 
and is always preceded by structural derangement, or disorgani- 
zation which, from the obscurity of the symptoms escapes 
notice until it is too late for medical aid. The animal gener- 
ally does his work as usual until within a few hours of his 
death, keeping in full condition, and presenting to the eye of 
his owner no appearance of disease. The symptoms are so 
gradual in their development as to escape observation until 
the peritoneum, or covering of the liver, gives way, or becomes 
ruptured, from the great distension of the liver, when the 
blood flows freely into the abdominal cavity, giving rise to the 
most alarming symptoms, and the horse often dies within an 
hour after he is first discovered to be ill. 

The symptoms which are noticeable are suddenly developed, 
and generally appear immediately after eating or drinking. 
The animal will sometimes fall suddenly, and die in a few 
minutes, without having shown any previous indisposition ; at 
other times the respiration becomes hurried, the belly begins 
to swell, the pulse becomes gradually diminished and very 
feeble, partial or general sweating takes place, the animal 



272 DECAYED STRUCTURE OP THE LIVER. 

walks with a tottering gait, the membranes lining the eyelids, 
lips, and nose, become blanched, indicating internal hemor- 
rhage, there is a vacant stare in the eye, with great prostra- 
tion of strength, which soon terminates in death. Upon 
opening the abdomen, it is found filled with dark venous 
blood in a fluid state, and the liver is several times its 
natural size, and exceedingly tender. Where it is possible to 
detect the existence of the disease in its incipient stages, 
calomel would be the appropriate remedy, as it is as justly 
entitled to rank as a specific for the diseases of the liver of 
the horse, as it is for those of his master — man. 



DECAYED STRUCTURE OP THE LIVER. 

This also is a disease of common occurrence, though like 
the other diseases of this organ, the symptoms, from their 
obscurity, are not well understood by the veterinary practi- 
tioner, but little attention having as yet been paid to its in- 
vestigation. 

The first symptoms noticed are loss of appetite ; surfeit ; 
the being hide-bound ; rough, staring coat ; food passing un- 
digested ; stools of a clay color ; prostration of strength ; 
readiness to sweat; pulse quick but feeble; respiration hur- 
ried; sometimes violent purging, after which the animal 
usually dies. 

Caution is necessary in the treatment of this variety of dis- 
eased liver. Bleeding must not be resorted to upon any con- 
sideration. In the absence of purging, give one of the fol- 
lowing balls every other day : of calomel half an ounce ; Bar- 
badoes aloes one ounce ; resin three ounces ; mix with molasses, 



INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. 213 

and divide into six balls. Upon the intermediate days give 
of sulphate of potash one and a half ounces ; carbonate of 
potash one ounce ; pulverized Jamaica ginger half an ounce ; 
linseed meal two ounces : mix with molasses, and divide into 
six balls. 



DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 



INFLAMMATION" OP THE BLADDER. 

Inflammation of the bladder, or cystitis, is a disease of com- 
paratively rare occurrence in the horse, and generally is found 
in connection with other diseases. It is commonly supposed 
to occur more frequently in mares ; although the author's ex- 
perience has not confirmed this supposition. 

The symptoms are con- 
tinual emission of urine in 
small quantities ; the moment 
it enters the bladder it is 
again expelled, but voided 
with much straining; pulse 
accelerated ^ pawing ; the 
animal looks imploringly at SIRS 
his flanks ; and upon passing VIKGINIA MILL B0YS 0N A RACE ' 

the hand into the rectum, the bladder will be found contracted, 
and hard as a ball, being also hot and tender. 

For treatment, back-rake the animal in the first place, and 
then throw up injections of water, adding to every gallon three 
ounces of tincture of opium. Give internally one and a half 
18 




274 RETENTION OF URINE. 

pints of linseed oil, to which may be advantageously added 
one drachm of chloroform. Bathe the loins with the follow- 
ing mixture : of strong mustard, a quarter of a pound ; water, 
half a pint ; hartshorn, two ounces : mix thoroughly together, 
and rub it well in. Give half a drachm of lactucarium three 
times a day ; or, if more convenient, the extract of belladonna 
may be substituted. Give plenty of flaxseed tea ; if the animal 
refuses to drink it, drench him with it. No hay must be 
given until twenty-four hours after he becomes convalescent. 
This is one of the most dangerous diseases to which the horse 
is subject. 

BETENTXOiN" OF UEIlfE. 

This disease, technically known as spasm of the neck of the 
bladder, is found more frequently as an attendant upon other 
diseases than as an independent affection. It frequently occurs 
in colics as an accompanying symptom, thus misleading the 
ordinary observer in his judgment of the disorder. 

The most common symptom is frequent but unsuccessful 
efforts to stale. This, however, must not be depended upon 
too strongly ; as it will sometimes be observed in horses that 
are comparatively sound in these organs, particularly in those 
that have been well cared for. In such cases this temporary 
retention of urine arises from a dislike on the part of the 
jmiraal of splattering his legs in voiding his water ; hence he 
arill often retain it in the bladder, though painful to him, until 
$he litter is placed under him, when he at once stretches him- 
self, and the urine flows freely and copiously. This fact has 
given rise to a superstitious notion among horsemen, that 
there is some peculiar virtue in the straw to cause this sudden 



PROFUSE STALING. 275 

cure ; as a consequence, we frequently hear the remark, " Put 
some straw under him — that will cure him," etc. 

If, however, retention of urine arises from disease, the straw 
possesses no magic charm to afford relief. In such instances 
the animal manifests but little pain, and rarely lies down. On 
passing the hand up the rectum or fundament, the bladder, 
which is easily felt, will be found very much distended with 
urine. 

The services of a regular veterinary practitioner will be re- 
quired in the treatment of this disease, as the bladder must be 
at once evacuated, which can in most cases be accomplished 
by means of an instrument called the catheter, which is not 
commonly found in the hands of any but the qualified sur- 
geon. This desired evacuation can in some instances be pro- 
duced by careful manipulation. Back-raking is very necessary 
in these cases, and injections of soap and water should be freely 
used. Unless the bladder is speedily emptied, it swells and 
bursts, causing a fatal termination. Fomentations of hot 
water to the abdomen, and pressure of the hand upon the 
bladder will be of assistance in enabling the animal to void 
the urine. 



PEOFUSE STALING. 

This disorder, called also diabetes, is of frequent occurrence 
in the horse, and is attended with debility, impaired appetite, 
and sometimes loss of flesh. The causes are the improper use 
of nitre, saltpetre, and other powerful diuretics, as also un- 
wholesome food, and the like. 

The treatment is simple and effective ; a great variety of 
medicinal substances beine: used in its abatement — as catechu. 



276 BLOODY URINE. 

oak bark, gum kino, opium, chalk, etc. Either of these in 
moderate doses will usually check the copious flow of urine. 
Either of the following will be found sufficient : uva ursi (bear's 
whortleberry), powdered, two ounces ; oak bark pulverized, four 
ounces ; catechu pulverized, one ounce ; opium pulverized, two 
drachms : mix either with molasses or honey, and divide into 
six balls, giving one every day. Or, the following may be 
used with equal advantage : opium pulverized, half an ounce ; 
sulphate of iron, one ounce ; gentian root pulverized, one 
ounce : mix with molasses, and divide into six balls — one to be 
given every day. 

BLOODY URINE. 

This disease, known also as hematura, frequently arises from 
strains across the loins, violent exercise, unwholesome food, 
calculous concretions in the kidneys, etc. It is not attended 
by symptoms of general derangement; the appetite is not 
usually impaired, nor is any marked degree of fever present. 
The color of the urine first calls attention, in voiding which 
the animal appears to strain slightly. 

If the bowels are at all costive, injections should at once be 
thrown up the rectum ; linseed tea should be given as a drink ; 
mustard applications to the loins. Give internally one of the 
following once a day : of sugar of lead, one ounce ; linseed 
meal, two ounces; mix with molasses or honey, and divide 
into eight pills ; follow this for ten or twelve days, with one 
drachm of sulphuric acid in a pail of water to drink. Catechu, 
logwood, dragon's blood, oak bark, etc., have been used with 
advantage. 



STONES IN THE KIDNEYS. 211 

STONES IN THE KIDNEYS. 

These concretions, which are quite common in the horse, 
are of a pale, dirty yellow color, elongated or conical in form, 
and much softer than any of the other varieties heretofore 
mentioned. " We have better evidence," says Mr. Blain, " than 
mere supposition ; for urinary calculi (or stones in the kid- 
neys), have been found in horses which have died with symp- 
toms which might have been mistaken for very acute enter- 
itis, or inflammation of the bowels. We may also suppose 
that the early accumulations would occasion irregular and di- 
minished secretion of urine, followed at length by a bloody 
purulent mixture with the water, until more active symptoms 
should arise, and carry off the horse. Concretions within the 
kidneys might be removed in their early state by remedies 
tending to decompose them in the urinary pelvis. For this 
purpose we have mineral acids, of which the hydrochloric, as 
holding the silicious matter in solution, is to be preferred. 
The mineral acids pass through the body unchanged, being 
emitted with the urine in a state of purity." 

A better opportunity is afforded us of discovering calculus 
in the urinary organs, than in any other parts ; for an examina- 
tion of the urine, when placed under the microscope, will enable 
us to detect its presence. When these deposits are ascer- 
tained, give in every pail of water which the animal drinks, 
two drachms of hydrochloric (muriatic) acid, which will in a 
short time be drunk with a relish by him. 



2T8 TONES IN THE BLADDER. 

STONES IN THE BLADDEB. 

These differ from stones in the kidneys in form and exter- 
nal appearance; presenting, in consequence of the constant 
washings of the calculus by the urine an uneven, or what is 
called a mulberry appearance ; externally, it is of a reddish 
brown color. When these stones are quite large, very great 
inconvenience is occasioned to the animal. 

Stones in the bladder may exist a long time before any per- 
ceptible symptoms of their existence are manifested. The 
urine is generally thick and of a whitish color, with frequent 
desire to void the urine, accompanied with difficulty and pain ; 
the urine occasionally presents a bloody appearance ; in some 
cases all the symptoms of colic are present, rendering it diffi- 
cult to distinguish between the two disorders. If the pain is 
severe, the animal paws violently, kicks at his sheath, lies down, 
rolls, and gets up again quickly, sweats in various parts of the 
body, giving off the odor of urine. 

For treatment, we should first attempt the dissolution of the 
stones, as recommended for stones in the kidneys, or we should 
remove them by the operation of lithotomy, which will be de- 
scribed under the head of surgical operations. If they are 
small, they may sometimes be extracted through the urethra, a 
process which is very easy in the case of mares. 



CONTRACTION OF THE HOOF. 



279 



DISEASES OF THE FEET AND LEGS. 



CONTBACTION OF THE HOOF. 

horses that are kept in cities, or in stony sections of the 
country, this disease is one of the most common occurrence. In 

the middle and southern portions of New Jersey, 

and Ohio, and in many other sections where the 
shoeing of the horse is 
not called for except in 
frosty weather, contrac- 
tion of the hoof is com- 
paratively rare, in con- 
sequence of the feet 
being unfettered by that 




THE FAST-TROTTING STALLION, GEORCE M. PATCHEN. 



iron band, the shoe. 



This trouble is gradual in its approach ; the first indication 
being a dry, brittle, unyielding hoof; the heels gradually be- 
coming narrower, until they are painful. The hoof no longer 
accommodates itself to the soft structure within its limits, and, 
in consequence, the concussion is greater and the elasticity 
very much less. The parts therefore become bruised, and fever 
ensues, which still further facilitates the contraction q£ the hoof 
by absorbing its moisture ; lameness follows as the natural and 
inevitable result. Upon an examination of the animal sweenie 
is decided upon by the horseman as the disease to which he 
is subject ; a disease, by the way, which, we beg to say, the 
veterinary surgeon never yet has met. 

The primary cause of this trouble is, undoubtedly bad shoeing, 
tjie preventives of which have already been fully unfolded. 



280 CORNS. 

Standing upon plank-floors has also a tendency to produce it, 
as it absorbs the moisture of the hoof, and renders it brittle and 
liable to crack. Traveling upon hard stony roads, with shoes 
that are beveled inwards, also predisposes the feet to this dis- 
order. 

The treatment must, necessarily, be slow in its operation ; yet 
by careful management it is sure. The shoes must, in the first 
place, be removed, and the feet well poulticed for several days 
until the hoof and frogs become perfectly soft. The animal 
should then be carefully shod, as heretofore directed; apply 
daily, until the heels are fully spread, the following ointment ; 
of rosin, four ounces ; beeswax, four ounces ; lard, two pounds ; 
tallow, one pound ; melt together, and, when cool, stir in four 
ounces of oil of turpentine. 



COENS. 

The first effect of contraction of the hoof is to bruise the sen- 
sitive parts within their horny limits at that part of the foot 
formed by the crust and bar, causing lameness, which may be 
acute or chronic. These bruises are commonly called corns. 
The reason why this portion of the foot should be so severely 
bruised is obvious. The crust and bar forming a triangular space 
between which a considerable portion of the sensitive lamina? lie, 
this bar by its resistance of the encroachments of the crust, causes 
a twofold pressure upon the sensitive parts, acting much as 
a vice, and thereby diminishing the triangular space. Upon 
examination of the foot the horn is found hard, dry, and brittle, 
with a strong tendency to crack on very slight concussion. On 
removing a portion of the horn at the part of the foot indicated, 
the parts are found to be contused, sometimes slightly, and at 



CORNS. 281 

others severely. In the latter case the feet are in such a con- 
dition as to require prompt attention, or a sloughing, or dis- 
charge of matter, may take place, forming a sinus, or pipe-like 
opening, through the quarter, sometimes passing through the 
coronet, and producing a condition, or disease, known as 
Quitter, which often terminates in permanent lameness and 
deformity. 

When the lameness is of a chronic character, the poor beast, 
owing to his deprivation of speed, is compelled to suffer all 
kinds of barbarous treatment, such as roweling, setoning, etc, 
etc. As few believe corns to be of so serious a nature, the 
most are ready to attribute the lameness to a disease, or a sup- 
posed disease, which exists only in their disordered imagina- 
tions. 

As symptomatic indications, it may be remarked that the 
horse extends one foot in advance of the other, and rests upon 
the toe, which causes a bending of the knee, with a hard, dry, 
brittle, and contracted hoof. 

By way of treatment, the hoof, around the corn should be 
cut away so as to prevent pressure from the shoe ; the corn 
should be well cut out, and burnt with a hot iron, butter of an- 
timony, muriatic acid, caustic silver, or the permanganate of 
potash. He should then be carefully shod, and, if the frog is 
elastic, a bar shoe nicely fitted, with a perfectly level bearing, 
would be best ; if, however, the frog is hard and unyielding, such 
a shoe may prove injurious. Flaxseed poultices frequently ap- 
plied to the feet, together with the use of hoof ointment, will 
be found effectual ; a run at grass without shoes will also prove 
beneficial. 



282 THRUSH. 

QUITTER, 

This is an ulceration, or formation of pus, between the sen- 
sitive and insensible laminse, or inner parts of the wall of the 
hoof, generally situated on the inside quarter, forming sinuses, or 
pipe-like openings. Neglected corns often produce this disease, 
as also caulking or bruises from any cause. 

The first appearance upon the foot on the approach of this 
disease is a hard conical tumor, hot, red, and smooth, which 
soon becomes soft, breaks, and discharges pus. A probe should 
first be introduced by way of treatment, pointing out the direc- 
tion of the sinuses ; an injection of sulphate of zinc, one drachm 
dissolved in a pint of water, should be thrown into the opening 
in the foot by the means of a small syringe, once daily, and the 
foot should be occasionally washed with castile soap and water. 
The early treatment should consist in poulticing with flaxseed 
meal for several days. If the case is very slow, use two drachms 
of the chloride of zinc to a pint of water ; inject in the same 
manner ; cut away all loose parts of the horn, which will facili- 
tate the cure. Glycerine has also been used by the author with 
marked benefit. 



THRUSH. 

This is a discharge of a matter from the cleft or division of 
the frog, which occasionally produces lameness. It originates 
from a filthy condition of the stable, the animal being allowed 
to stand in his dung, or upon foul litter. Horses that are well 
cared for are rarely troubled with it. The symptoms are a rot- 
tenness of the frog, accompanied by a discharge of fetid matter. 
Lameness may, or may not, be present. 



CANKER. 283 

For treatment, wash the feet well with soap and water ; fill 
the cleft with powdered sulphate of copper, and pack over it a 
little tow ; remove the filth from the stall, and the animal soon 
recovers. An ointment may also be used, made of equal parts 
of pine-tar and lard, melted over a slow fire ; when cool, add 
sulphuric acid until ebullition ceases, and it is then fit for r.so. 



CANKER. 

This arises from neglected thrush, often proving very difficult 
to manage. It extends from the horny frog to the sensitive frog, 
and sometimes to the navicular joint, involving the surrounding 
parts, and causing much alteration or destruction of the structures 
affected. It is by no means always a local disease, but is influ- 
enced by a morbid or unhealthy condition of the blood. The au- 
thor's attention was once called to a case of four years' standing, 
in which all the feet were involved, and the value of the animal 
thereby so depreciated that he was sold to a shoeing-smith of 
Philadelphia for the sum of twenty-five dollars, his cost being 
some two hundred and fifty dollars. All treatment had failed 
up to that time ; yet, notwithstanding the long resistance of 
the disease, it gradually yielded to constitutional treatment. 

For treatment, all loose horn should be removed, that the 
parts may be properly dressed. If taken early, the following 
wash may be used with success ; of nitrate of silver, half an 
ounce ; water, one pint ; shake well together, and use once a 
day. Or, the ointment of tar, lard, and sulphuric acid, recom- 
mended in cases of thrush, may be usefully applied. Should 
this fail, apply once a day the following : of castor oil, one part ; 
collodion, two parts ; mix well together. Give internally half 
a drachm of powdered nux vomica mixed in the feed, which 



284 GREASE HEELS. 

should consist of green food, mashes, and a little hay. Corro- 
sive sublimate in solution has been used with decided advantage; 
as also chloride of zinc, chloride of lime, butter of antimony, 
tincture of myrrh, sulphate of copper, glycerine, and many 
other preparations. 

SCKATCHES. 

This disease, called also cracked heels, generally arises from 
neglect, such as allowing the horse to stand in a filthy stall. 
It is generally confined to the hind feet, and consists in a 
swelling of the skin, causing in it one or more transverse 
cracks, which discharge a sanious (thin, serous, and reddish) 
matter at times ; while in other cases the parts are almost dry, 
but scurfy. 

For treatment, wash well with soap and water ; take a shav- 
ing, or other soft, brush, and make a lather of soap and water, 
with which mix a small quantity of powdered charcoal ; rub this 
well in the fetlock, and let it dry, after which it can be rubbed 
off. Two or three applications are generally successful. The 
collodion and castor oil will also answer a good purpose ; a 
physic ball should first be given. 



GREASE HEELS. 

This is the result of weakness in the capillary vessels of the 
feet and legs, and is often preceded by dropsical effusions, which 
frequently exist upon the leg as far as the hock or knee. Com- 
mon-bred horses are supposed to be more liable to this disease, 
while thorough-bred are comparatively free from its attacks. 

The principal causes are, doubtless, over-feeding and want 
of exercise ; since we generally find the disease associated with 



GREASE HEELS. 



285 




a plethoric condition of the animal. As symptomatic, the skin 
at first is hot, red, swollen, and tender, and discharges a white 
offensive matter of a greasy feeling. As the 
disease advances, this discharge thickens into 
the form of tears, and becomes 
hard, presenting a grapy 
appearance. Abscesses 
1 are sometimes f o r m e d 
about the heels, causing 
the sloughing away of a 
large portion of them. 

This disease requires 
constitutional, as well as 
local, treatment. Give 
internally for four days one of the following balls : of Barbadoes 
aloes, one ounce ; pulverized gentian root, half an ounce ; pul- 
verized ginger, two drachms ; mix with molasses, and divide into 
four balls. Follow this with half- drachm doses of nux vomica 
powdered ; wash the parts well with soap and water, and apply 
flaxseed poultices, mixed with a solution of sulphate of zinc, 
until the inflammation is considerably reduced ; then bathe care- 
fully either with glycerine, or a solution of sulphate of zinc, or 
the castor oil and collodion wash. If the discharge is very 
offensive, use powdered charcoal and soap suds, allowing it to 
dry upon the legs ; a solution of the chloride of lime may also 
be used ; or a weak solution of corrosive sublimate is bene- 
ficial. 



THE CHILDREN'S PET. 



286 WATER FARCY. 

WATBE FARCY. 

This disease, together with anasarca and oedema may be classed 
under a common head, as they are but modifications of the same 
disease, which depends upon general debility for its existence. 
Two stages are, however, said to exist j one with inflammation, 
and the other without ; one occurring in old horses, and the 
other in young ones. One important difference should be noted ; 
the term anasarca is too extensive in its application to be 
properly associated with this disease, the term oedema being 
preferable to it, as having a local meaning and being more cir- 
cumscribed in its limits. 

As symptoms, the legs, belly, sheath, and other parts become 
swollen, and leave the impression of the fingers behind after 
pressure. In old horses such pressure rarely causes pain, in- 
flammation being absent ; but in young horses the legs particu- 
larly are hot and painful to the touch. 

In this disease we must depend npon tonic and diuretic me- 
dicines ; tonic, for the purpose of building up the system ; and 
diuretic, to increase the secretions. The two should be com- 
bined as follows : of sulphate of iron, two ounces ; pulverized 
gentian root, one ounce; pulverized ginger, half an ounce; 
nitrate of potash, one ounce ; mix, and divide into eight powders, 
giving one night and morning, with good nourishing food, and 
allowing no corn. Or, the following will be found very useful : 
of sulphate of copper, one ounce ; pulverized gentian root, one 
and a half ounces ; pulverized ginger, half an ounce ; nitre, one 
ounce ; ground anise seed, six drachms ; mix, and divide into 
eight powders, giving one night and morning. Hand-rubbing 
and daily exercise will be necessary. 



CBACKED HOOF. 281 

WEED. 

This is a disease similar to oedema, but makes its appearance 
above the hock, and extends downward. The skin is hot, and 
extremely sensitive to the touch ; so much so that the animal 
throws the leg upward and outward as though to escape tor- 
ture. The veins of the hg are full and corded. 

For treatment, apply warm fomentations to the parts affected, 
and give a purging ball, followed by the powders recommended 
in the last disease. 



CRACKED HOOF. 

This disease, also called sand-crack, occurs only in the hoof 
that is dry, hard, brittle, and contracted. The hoof in a 
natural, elastic condition can be bruised, but not split up if 
double the force that splits the dry, contracted hoof is applied. 
This crack occurs most generally at the quarters, and almost al- 
ways in the fore feet, they being almost alone subject to con- 
traction. If the crack extends through the hoof it causes very 
painful lameness. 

For treatment, the foot must first be carefully examined to 
see that no dirt has worked in under the hoof ; the loose parts 
of the horn must be cut away ; a pledget of tow, saturated with 
sulphate or chloride of zinc, or tincture of myrrh, should be ap- 
plied, and a bandage carefully put on to keep it in place and 
keep out the dirt. As soon as the new horn has grown down 
a little, draw a line across the top of the crack with a draw- 
ing-knife or firing-iron, and apply a little tar or hoof ointment. 
If the crack is at the toe, a shoe with a band running across 
from the heels to a little below the coronet in front, and united 



288 PRICKING. 

by two screws, will often be all that is required, and the horse 
may be kept at work ; but in quarter-crack it is unsafe to use 
the animal, particularly if it extends through to the soft parts. 
If the frog is in a healthy condition, which is rarely the case, 
a bar shoe, eased at the quarter, will be found beneficial. 



SOLE BRUISE AND GEAVBL. 

Accidents frequently occur to the feet of horses from their 
striking them forcibly upon stones and other hard substances. 
Pressure of the shoe upon the sole is the occasional cause of 
bruises of that part of the foot ; and tender heels more fre- 
quently arise from bruises than from any other cause. 

For treatment, if pus is secreted within the hoof — which 
may be discovered by the acute pain caused by a light tap of 
a hammer on that part of the hoof under which the matter is 
situated — the hoof must be cut through, that the matter may 
escape, as it will gradually work its way upward and make its 
appearance at the top of the hoof, thus rendering the treat- 
ment more difficult. After the matter escapes through the 
opening so made, throw in an injection of sulphate of zinc in 
solution, one drachm to a pint of water. For the treatment 
will be the same as recommended in quitter. Gravel some- 
times works into these wounds, which must always be removed, 
and the parts carefully washed. 



PRICKING. 



This is an accident of too frequent occurrence, and happens 
in various ways, as by treading upon sharp bodies, such as 
broken glass, nails, etc., etc. It occurs more frequently, how- 



FALSE QUARTER. 289 

ever, in shoeing, owing to the nail not being properly pointed, 
or, in some cases, from the iron not being good splits, one 
part turning inward and the other outward. These acci- 
dents are not always the fault of the smith, and he should not 
be unjustly censured for what he could not obviate. If such 
punctures are properly attended to, serious consequences rarely 
ensue. The practice of closing up the wound after removing 
the nail, glass, or other sharp substance cannot be too strongly 
condemned. It is doubtless in consequence of this senseless 
practice that so many horses are lost from lock-jaw, which 
does not generally make its appearance until the animal has 
apparently recovered from the wound ; though upon an exami- 
nation of the foot pus will often be found secreted within the 
hoof. 

When a horse picks up a nail, or is pricked by the smith, a 
poultice should at once be applied to the foot, and kept on 
for several days ; a cathartic ball should also be given, that the 
bowels may be in good order ; after the removal of the poul- 
tice, apply the tar ointment, and no further trouble may be 
anticipated. 

FALSE QUAKTEK. 

This is an imperfect formation of horn at the quarter, which 
is generally of a lighter color than the other part of the hoof, 
and is divided by a seam from the top to the bottom. It is 
the result of injury from quitter and other diseases, rendering 
the heels weak, and requires the protection of a bar shoe, 
which should never bear upon it, as it may occasion lameness. 
19 



290 FOUNDER. 

FOUNDER. 

Founder, or laminitis, is an inflammatory condition of the 
lamince of the feet, which are the most sensitive parts of these 
important appendages. Founder is said to be produced by 
various causes, such as hard driving, watering when warm, 
standing in a draught of air, or upon plank floors, and many 
others. 

The author, however, views it in a different light, attributing 
its existence principally to one general cause, namely, contrac- 
tion of the hoof, the causes before named being the immediate 
or exciting causes. This view is sustained by many facts. 
Founder does not occur in one case out of fifty in a healthy, 
open foot ; nor are the hind feet often involved, as they are 
rarely in a contracted condition. 

The symptoms are a full, quick pulse, from sixty upwards ; 
accelerated respiration ; the fore feet are hot and tender, the 
animal for relief throwing his body back upon the hind legs, 
extending the fore legs until he rests upon the heels, and 
sometimes lying down, particularly if the hind feet are involved; 
the animal also manifests much pain. 

If the animal is in full condition, two quarts of blood 
should be taken from each of the fore feet ; an active purging 
ball should be given, followed by one-drachm doses of bella- 
donna made into pills every four hours ; poultices of flaxseed 
meal should be applied to the feet for several days ; injections 
of soap and water, also ought not to be neglected. By this 
treatment the animal is usually well again in a week, or even 
less ; but if the disease is neglected until it becomes chronic, 
the animal will ever after remain unsound, though he may be 



CORINITIS. 291 

rendered useful. From the alteration or disorganization of 
structure that takes place, there can little be done in the 
chronic stage except careful shoeing, which the smith should 
understand. 



PUMICED FOOT. 

This is called by horsemen a falling of the sole. It is pre- 
ceded by founder, and is, in reality, one of the terminations 
of that disease, arising from the slow, continued inflammation 
of chronic founder, which causes absorption of the outer edge 
of the coffin bone, the latter thereby gradually losing its con- 
cave surface, and becoming convex. The sole, yielding to 
this gradual change, becomes flat, or, in some instances, con- 
vex. Yery little can be done in such cases by way of treat- 
ment ; yet by careful shoeing the animal may be rendered use- 
ful, although never sound. 



CORINITIS. 

This is an inflammation of the coronary ligament, situated 
within the upper part of the hoof and between the hoof and the 
hair. This ligament secretes the horn forming the wall or 
crust of the hoof, and when diseased ceases to perform its 
function, or performs it very imperfectly ; as a consequence, 
the coronet, or upper margin of the hoof, is contracted, which 
causes the soft parts to bulge out in such a manner that it has 
often been mistaken for ring-bone. This contraction often 
causes lameness. The most frequent causes are, standing upon 
plank floors, hard driving, and the neglect to apply softening 
applications to the hoof. 

For treatment, apply a flaxseed poultice for several days, and 



292 NAVICULARTHR1TIS. i 

then a fly blister well rubbed in around the upper margin of the 
hoof; afterward use the hoof ointment once a day, until the 
coronet comes up full. 

WAVICUIiAKTHKITIS. 

Coffin-joint lameness, as it is generally termed, is a dis- 
ease of very common occurrence, and often troublesome to 
manage. This joint is formed by the union, of three bones: 
the os pedis, or coffin-bone, situated immediately within 
the hoof; the coronary, or small pastern bone, the lower 
half of which is situated within the upper part of the hoof, 
called the coronet, and uniting with the 
os pedis; and the navicular, situated be- 
CSS tween and behind 
the two, uniting 
with both, and 
forming the navi- 
cular joint. This 
joint is protected 

THE FAMOUS TROTTING MAKE, FLORA TEMPLE. BgamSt lDJUry ITOttl 

concussion by the fatty frog, the sensible frog, and the horny 
frog, situated beneath it, and forming a soft elastic cushion on 
which it may rest. So long as the foot remains in a healthy 
condition, there is little danger of the occurrence of this dis- 
ease. Even though the foot be strained very considerably, 
and a high degree of inflammatory action be produced, this 
disease will hardly arise, unless the inflammation becomes 
chronic. The author regards its origin as mainly due to a 
contracted condition of the feet, which, in fact, is the predis- 
posing cause. 




OSSIFICATION OF THE LATERAL CARTILAGES. 293 

Rarely, indeed, is navicular-joint lameness found existing in 
feet that have open heels and elastic frogs. If from any cause 
these frogs lose their moisture, they also lose their elasticity, 
and the foot therefore strikes the ground with a jar ; inflamma- 
tion of a chronic character sets in ; the synovia (joint-oil) be- 
comes absorbed ; and caries of the bones is established, which 
destroys their articular surfaces and causes excessive lameness. 
Occasionally, owing to some new injury, acute inflammation 
sets in, causing new depositions of bone to be thrown out, and 
uniting the three bones together ; which union is called anchy- 
losis. This condition may be known by stiffness, and the 
animal walking upon the toe. 

The symptoms of this disease have been confounded with 
those of another disease of the foot, which has been discovered 
by recent investigations. The horse is found to go lame upon 
coming out of the stable, which wears off after traveling some 
distance ; one foot is observed in advance of the other when 
the animal is at rest ; as the disease advances, the lameness 
becomes more frequent, until at last it is permanent. Yarious 
kinds of treatment have been resorted to, but with little 
success, such as blistering, firing, etc. Of late years, the frog 
seton has been introduced with very decided benefit. Should 
this, too, fail, there is no hope but in the operation of nerving, 
which should only be performed in certain cases mentioned 
under the head of neurotomy. 



OSSIFICATION OF THE LATERAL CARTILAGES.. 

This is a transformation to bone of two projections of car- 
tilage, or gristle, springing from each side of the coffin bone 
posteriorly, and known as the lateral cartilages. This disease 



294 SPRUNG OR BROKEN KNEES. 

was at one time called ring-bone, but the ring-bone of the 
present day is quite a different disease. It arises from con- 
cussion, and will rarely be found in any but contracted feet. 

The treatment in these cases is only palliative, as the dis- 
ease cannot be eradicated by any course of medical treatment. 
The first endeavor should be to expand the heels by applying 
poultices to the feet, together with the hoof ointment. 



WIND GALLS. 

Wind galls are puffy swellings about the joints, found above 
the fetlock on both the hind and fore legs. They are techni- 
cally known as bursal enlargements, that is, a distended con- 
dition of the burses or synovial sacs, which contain the 
synovia, or joint oil. The animal suffers no inconvenience, 
apparently, from their presence upon his limbs, they evidently 
causing no pain. 

It is seldom that any treatment is resorted to, except in the 
case of a very valuable animal. Blisters are commonly ap- 
plied, but they are not attended with any permanent benefit. 
The application of cold water and compresses, secured by 
means of bandaging the legs, has proven the most efficacious. 



SPRUNG OR BROKEN KNEES. 

This trouble does not always result from an injury of the 
leg, or strain of the tendons ; it is more often found in horses 
that have bad corns in the feet, or troubled with navicular 
disease, than in any others. The animal raising his heels to 
prevent pressure upon the tender parts, bends the knee, which 
bending becomes finally, from the altered position of the limb, 



STRAINS OP THE kNEES. 295 

a permanent deformity. Horses with sprung knees are unsafe 
for saddle purposes, owing to their consequent liability to 
stumble. 

Respecting the treatment, it may be said that six out of 
every ten sprung-kneed horses will be found to have corns. 
If these be of recent growth, there is a fair prospect of 
straightening the limbs by removing the corns as directed 
under the head of that disease ; by the removal of these the 
heels are brought to the ground, and the limb becomes straight. 
Under any other circumstances all treatment proves useless. 



BKEAKING DOWN. 

This accident occurs in running, jumping, racing, etc. It 
is sometimes called a strain of the back sinews, and lets the 
animal down upon the fetlock, in consequence of a rupture of 
the ligament of the pastern. Horses meeting with this acci- 
dent are of little value ever after, as they always remain weak 
in the fetlock. Unless the animal is quite young and valuable, 
the treatment would cost more than the animal's value. The 
French treat these cases very successfully by the application 
of instruments which keep the limb in its proper position until 
the parts have again healed and become strong. This is the 
only course to be pursued with any possible chance of a suc- 
cessful termination of the case. 



STKAnSTS OF THE KNEES. 

Strains of this joint occur in young horses while being 
broken into harness more often, probably, than at any other 
period of the animal's life. This results from the tenderness 



296 SHOULDER STRAIN. 

of the parts at that time, not one in twenty having them having 
arrived at maturity. These strains often prove troublesome 
to manage, and occasionally leave a stiff knee as the result. 

Treatment — Bleeding from the plantar, or plate vein ; warm 
fomentations to the part j when the inflammation is reduced, 
apply once a day for several days the following ointment: 
iodine ointment, one ounce ; blue, or mercurial ointment, half 
an ounce ; mix well together. 



STRAIN OF THE HIP JOINT. 

This occurs in falling, slipping, getting up, etc. The symp- 
toms are a dragging motion of the limb ; the lameness passing 
off after the animal gets warmed up, and returning upon his 
becoming again cool, the horse being then even more stiff 
and lame than before leaving the stable. 

For treatment, apply cold water ; a purging ball and rest 
are all that are requisite to effect a cure. Careful usage for 
some time after will be very necessary. 



SHOULDER STRAIN. 

This, which is of rare occurrence, arises from severe blows, 
or concussions ; slipping so as to throw the legs apart forcibly ; 
falling in the shafts of a heavily laden cart, etc. The symp- 
toms are usually well marked ; the horse is quite lame, both 
when walking and trotting ; the leg drags with the toe on the 
ground, having an outward or circular motion. 

Local bleeding is generally useful by way of treatment; 
three or four quarts may be taken from the plate vein, which 
runs down the inside of the leg. If, however, the animal is in 
a debilitated condition, bleeding should not be practised. 



SWEENIE. 297 

Foment the shoulder well with hot water frequently ; a seton 
will often be found beneficial. After fomenting two or three 
days, use the following liniment : laudanum, one ounce ; spirits 
of camphor, one ounce ; tincture of myrrh, one ounce ; castile 
soap, one ounce ; alcohol, one pint. Or, sweet oil, one pint ; 
spirits of hartshorn, three ounces ; shake well together. 



OPEN JOINTS. 

These are generally the result of a punctured wound ; the 
capsular ligament that surrounds the joint and confines the 
joint oil within its proper limits being thereby penetrated. 
These accidents are often attended with serious results, from 
the inflammation that is likely to arise from such an injury. 

For treatment, efforts should first be made to close the 
wound, that the escape of the oil which lubricates the joint 
may be prevented. If the wound is small, it may be closed 
by means of a hot iron ; if large, shave off all the hair around 
the opening, apply a piece of linen cloth well saturated with 
collodion, and bandage the part. Care must be taken to have 
the skin around the wound perfectly dry, or the collodion will 
not adhere. Shoemaker's wax, or common glue, applied in 
the same way, will frequently answer the purpose. The 
animal must be kept perfectly quiet, his bowels opened, and he 
be kept upon his feet for several days ; if, however, the collo- 
dion adheres well, this is not of so much importance. 



SWEENIE. 

This imaginary disease has been the occasion of the infliction 
of much cruelty and unnecessary torture upon the horse. No 



298 



OSTITIS. 



respectable veterinary author recognizes any such disease. 
The symptoms which accompany its supposed existence are 
but sympathetic effects, or atrophy of the muscles of the 
shoulder. The attention of the horse-owner is directed to a 
wasting away or lessening of these muscles, which from want 
of action naturally become smaller or contracted ; upon the 



ral use of the limb, the mus- 
the muscles of the smith's 
use of the sledge ham- 
sweenie are invariably 
in some remote parts, 
the foot, etc. — 
animal picks up 
clear from the 
may be depend- 
that the injury 
is not in «- -.»-«.««. the shoulder ; if 

however, the leg drags with the toe on the ground, the injury 
may be looked for in that locality. It is, however, more easy 
to decide a case of shoulder lameness than any other to which" 
the limb is liable. 



animal's regaining the natu 

cles are again developed, as 

arm by the constant 

mer. Cases called 

the result of injury 

as the knee, 

When the 

the foot 

ground, itl 

ed upon 




THE EQUESTRIENNE. 



OSTITIS. 

This is an inflammation of the bone, occasioning lameness 
of an obscure nature, and is one of the most difficult of all 
cases of lameness to detect. Where it occurs in the cannon 
bone, it is often mistaken for a thickening of the integuments. 

Treatment — Cold bandages, lead water, rest, with daily 
half-drachm doses of iodide of potassa dissolved in a pail of 



CAPTJLET AND CAPPED HOCK. 299 

water, will usually prove successful if the treatment be per- 
severingly adopted. 



CAPULET AND CAPPED HOOK. 

There are generally serous abscesses, produced by blows, 
bruises, strains, or injuries from any cause. Capulet is an en- 
largement at the point of the elbow, and is generally caused by 
lying on the heels of the shoe, which bruise the part. Capped 
hock is found at the point of the hock joint, and is usually 
caused by kicking against the sides of the stall. 

By way of treatment, first open the part; if it contains fluid, 
which will be known by the soft elastic feeling, throw in with 
a syringe an injection of the tincture of iodine diluted with 
alcohol ; a solution of the sulphate of zinc may in incipient cases 
answer the purpose. If fluid is not formed, blisters will often 
succeed. In cases of capulet, have the heels of the shoes 
shortened, or bind the feet at night to prevent injury. 



CARIES OP THE BONES. 

This is, perhaps, the most common of all the diseases to 
which the horse is subject, and its frequency can only be ac- 
counted for, by the abuses to which he is subjected. It gene- 
rally arises from a low, inflammatory condition of the joints, 
these parts being principally affected ; an ulceration of the heads 
of the bones is established, generally in young horses, which is 
called, from the destruction which it occasions, caries, or decay. 
It will usually be found preceding spavin, ring-bone, stiff back, 
and other anchylosed conditions of the bones, and can best be 
illustrated under the heads of Spavin and Ring-bone. 



300 BONE SPAVIN. 

BONE spavin. 

This is a disease of such common occurrence that almost all 
horsemen think they fully understand its nature, pathological 
condition, and treatment. It is generally regarded by veteri- 
nary authors as a very serious injury, destructive to the utility 
of the animal, and very frequently reducing his value essentially 
in consequence of the blemishes. Where, however, there are 
no outward blemishes, as is the case in four out of every five 
spavined horses, the price of the animal is not affected, unless 
he is lame, since the disease is not discovered. There are, at 
this day, thousands of spavined horses traveling our roads, in 
not one of whom would the most experienced horsemen the 
world ever produced be able to determine the fact so long as 
the animal lives. In all such cases no external enlargement is 
found, but, on the contrary, the limb is clean and smooth. In 
the absence of enlargement, or spavin-bunch, as it is sometimes 
called, on the inside of the hock-joint, horsemen are unwilling 
to believe that spavin exists. The books, indeed, teach us to 
look there, and there only, for it ; but the author's experience 
teaches him that the enlargement, where any exists, appears 
almost as often upon the front part of the hock as it does upon 
the inside. 

Spavin generally arises from a strain, jar, or blow upon the 
hock-joint, causing an inflammatory condition of the cartilagi- 
nous cushions which cover the articular surfaces, or points of 
union, of each bone, or of the ligaments which surround the 
joints and bind the bones together ; sometimes, indeed, both 
are involved. As this inflammatory condition is the exciting 
cause, spavin, or ulceration of the parts, speedily follows the 



BONE SPAVIN. SOI 

neglect to remove it. When the inflammation is acute, the 
synovial fluid, or joint-oil, is soon absorbed ; the cartilages of 
the joint are turned to bone, and uniting, one with the other, 
form one solid mass, destroying the elasticity as well as the mo- 
bility of the parts involved, and constituting what is called 
anchylosis of the hock-joint. This anchylosis, or union of bone, 
is not always general, there being in many cases but two, three, 
or four of the bones involved. When these changes are con- 
fined to the cartilage, external enlargement, or spavin-bunch, is 
never found. This the author calls spavin without any external 
indication. 

When, however, the ligaments surrounding the joint are con- 
verted into bony substance, external enlargement in all cases 
exists. When a low, inflammatory action is found going on 
within the joint, it is an evidence of ulceration, in which, in- 
stead of new bone being thrown out, as in the acute stage, the 
natural bone is gradually decaying or rotting away. Hence 
arises the difficulty often experienced in the treatment of this 
disease. 

As symptoms, the horse is very lame on leaving the stable, 
but when he is warmed up the lameness passes off; the leg is 
drawn up quickly with a kind of jerk ; and there is a peculiar 
hard tread, which can only be distinguished by close observa- 
tion. Where the bones are all united together, whether there 
is external enlargement or not, there is a peculiar twist of the 
heel outwards, which is more readily observed in the walk, and 
which the author has always found an infallible symptom of 
complete anchylosis. 

Both spavin and ring-bone are incurable diseases. The 
lameness may be removed, bat the disease, when once estab- 



302 



BONE SPAVIN, 



lished, cannot, because the elasticity, mobility, and function 
of the joint are all destroyed in proportion to the extent of 
the disease. The spavined animal, therefore, comes down with 
a hard, jarring tread. The removal of the lameness depends 
upon perfect union or solidifying of the diseased bones. In 
the acute inflammatory cases, nature 
herself unaided 
works this change, 
and the animal re- 
covers from the 
lameness with a 
stiff joint; but in 
the second, or ul- 




THE HIGH-BBED PACING MABE POCAHONTAS. 



cerative stage, assistance is required. We, therefore, en- 
deavor to excite an active inflammation in the joint in order 
to overcome this ulcerative process, and induce new deposits 
of bone to be thrown out. Many modejs have been adopted to 
secure the desired end, some of which are of a most barbarous 
character. Sharp instruments have been struck with con- 
siderable force into the joint, creating a tremendous fire, 
which soon checks the ulceration. This practice, although 
often successful, is unnecessarily severe, and cruel in the ex- 
treme. All kinds of caustic applications have been used, 
many of which have destroyed both the disease and the animal. 
Blistering the parts, the action being kept up for three or four 
weeks, often proves successful ; firing is also practised ; setons 
in the hock are frequently used with advantage. The follow- 
ing ointment is recommended ; bin-iodide of mercury, one 
drachm ; lard, two ounces ; mix well together. Shave off the 



SPLINT. 333 

hair, and rub the part once a day for six or eight days ; then, 
wash the parts well with proof spirits. If the desired effect 
is not produced, repeat it. 

BIM-G-BOM-E. 

This is a disease of the same nature as spavin, its locality 
alone giving it a different name ; the same alterations of struc- 
ture takes place ; the same termination follows, and the same 
treatment is indicated. Contraction of the coronary ligaments 
is sometimes mistaken for ring-bone, and the poor beast is 
severely tortured in consequence. Contraction of this liga- 
ment produces a bulging of the soft parts around the coronet, 
causing the hair to turn downward and inward upon the hoof, 
giving it much the appearance of ring-bone. As in all such 
cases the heels are pressed close aud painfully together, there 
is great necessity of distinguishing between the two before 
any application is made. 



SPLINT. 

This is an exostosis, or bony enlargement, arising from blows 
upon, or strains of, the splint bones, which are situated one on 
each side of the cannon bones and posterior to them. Splints 
are so common that few horses reach the age of eight years 
without having them, although they are not always visible to 
the eye at that period, having perhaps spread over a large 
surface of bone, or become flattened ; which circumstance has 
given rise to the opinion among horsemen that old horses are 
not affected with splints. This, however, is a mistake ; since 
a splint once formed is never afterward removed during the 
life of the animal. The nature of a splint is very similar to 



304 CURB. 

that of a spavin, but its course is somewhat different. When 
the injury is first received, the enlargement becomes quite 
prominent ; but, as time advances, it generally disappears from 
view, even without the aid of man, spreading itself between 
the cannon and splint bones, thus lessening its size externally. 
Splints are not regarded as unsoundness, unless they cause 
lameness, which rarely occurs, particularly if they are situated 
near the middle of the bone ; but if they are situated either at 
the upper or lower portions, or heads, lameness is almost always 
the result. This is easily explained ; the bone, it will be ob- 
served, curves from above downward and outward, so that 
the lower extremity sets off from the body of the cannon boue ; 
the upper heads, where it unites with the bones of the knee 
and hock, slant or bevel inward, and as the weight of the 
animal is thrown upon them, the upper heads are forced out- 
ward, while the lower ones are thrown inward. By this 
simple arrangement a rocking motion of these bones takes 
place, so that at the centre there is very little mobility, and 
if the injury is above, it causes lameness in consequence of 
tension ; if below, from pressure ; but, if it is in the centre, it 
seldom causes lameness at all, though the injury is greater. 

When lameness occurs, the union of the bones should be 
hastened by increasing the inflammatory action ; this is best 
done by active blistering, which soon removes the lameness. 



CUEB. 

This is a swelling on the back part of the hock joint below 
the cap, generally arising from a strain, or breaking down of 
the hock. Some horses naturally have what are called curb- 



BLOOD SPAVIN, ETC. 305 

hocks, though they are not always attended with any serious 
disadvantages. There is a predisposition to weakness, which 
renders them suspicious. 

If the curb arises from recent injury, a little blood may with 
advantage be taken from the sephena vein running up the inside 
of the thigh ; cold water applications should be kept upon the 
parts ; cloths wet with tincture of arnica, half a pint to a gallon 
of water, are very useful ; or, the following ointment will be 
found of service : dry iodine, one drachm ; iodide of potassa, 
one drachm ; lard, one ounce ; mix well together, and use once 
a day. 



STRING HALT. 

This disease has never been very satisfactorily accounted for 
by veterinary authors. It consists in a sudden, spasmodic 
raising of the hind limbs, though it is said to have occurred in 
the fore legs. The author has found, upon an examination after 
death of the hock-joint of several animals affected with this 
disease, that a little roughness from exostosis existed on the 
os calcis, or bone forming the cap of the hock, where the 
perforans tendon plays over ; in other cases the tendon has been 
found almost entirely surrounded with a bony case, which inter- 
fered very materially with its action. He is inclined, therefore, 
to regard these as the general causes of the disease. 

No treatment as yet practised has proved successful ; though 
there are recorded isolated cases of spontaneous cure. 



BLOOD SPAVIN, BOG SPAVIN", AND THQRQUGHPIN. 

These constitute one disease, occasioned by an over secretion 
of joint oil in the hock joint, which causes a distention of the 
20 



306 FRACTURES. 

capsular ligament, or bursa, presenting soft puffy swellings about 
the joint. Blood and bog spavin appear on the front and insido 
of the joint ; while thoroughpin extends through from one side 
of the joint to the other. These diseases are so common and 
so well marked as not to be easily mistaken. The causes are 
violent exercise, throwing the animal upon his haunches, run- 
ning, jumping, etc. 

As it seldom causes lameness, treatment is rarely needed ; if 
requisite, blistering, bandaging with compresses, and rest are 
the most successful. 



FRACTURES. 

Experience has established the fallacy of destroying every 
horse that meets with a fractured limb. Fractures may occur 
in any bone of the body, and yet a perfect union of the parts 
may take place, provided the fracture is a simple one ; com- 
pound fractures, even, are occasionally united. 

For treatment, the animal should first be placed in the most 
comfortable position, and the parts adjusted as nearly as pos- 
sible, retaining them by proper bandages, splints, etc. Should 
the fracture be in the small or lower part of the leg, sole leather, 
softened in water and moulded to the limb, retaining it in place 
by bandages, forms a very good splint. 

Fractures of the skull sometimes require the operation of 
trephining, (explained under the head of Surgical Cases,) in 
order to replace the parts perfectly ; after which the bowels 
should be opened, and the animal kept on moderate diet. 

Fractures of the pelvis, or haunch bones, will, in nine cases 
out of ten, become united by proper management, no matter 
how bad the crushing, and the animal may again be rendered 



DISEASES OF THE HEART. " 307 

serviceable. The author never hesitates to treat fractures of 
these boues in horses that are of sufficient value to warrant it. 
Indeed, union of the 7 parts in such fractures will often take 
place, even if the animal be turned into a field without any 
treatment ; though, perhaps, more deformity will be left than 
if proper care had been exercised. The horse, if active and 
high-strung, should be kept upon his feet by tying up the head 
short for several days, and then the slings may be placed under 
him ; if this is done at first, the animal being full of fire throws 
himself off his feet, and all efforts to remedy the fracture will 
prove a failure. From six to eight weeks, according to the 
age of the animal, are necessary to complete the union of the 
parts. 

Some practical knowledge is requisite, in order to discrimi- 
nate cases of fracture of the limbs that are likely to be success- 
fully treated ; but fractures of the haunch bones rarely fail to 
unite, with proper management. The animal should be kept 
on bran mashes, gruel, and green food during the treatment. 



DISEASES OF THE HEART. 

Diseases of the heart are less understood by the members of 
the veterinary profession generally than any other class of dis- 
eases (with, perhaps, one or two exceptions,) to which horses 
are subject. This want of information in this country, is attri- 
butable to the comparative infancy of veterinary science, the 
obscurity of the symptoms by which these diseases are charac- 
terized, the consequent confounding of them with other diseases, 



308 PERICARDITIS. 

and to the comparative silence of veterinary authors upon this 
important subject. 

Diseases of the heart in this animal are not suspected by the 
farrier, (shoeing-smith) or horseman ; yet they are by no means 
of unfrequent occurrence. During the session of the Veterinary 
College of Philadelphia for 1859-60, the author had then op- 
portunities of presenting to the class well-marked cases of disease 
of this organ, as also one very interesting case of rupture of the 
heart, or rather of the aorta, or great artery leading from the 
heart, at the point where it leaves that important organ. The 
latter case was that of a bay mare which had been used in an 
oyster cart; she ate her feed at night as usual, in apparent good 
health, and was found dead in her stall the next morning. 



PERICARDITIS. 

This disease, as its name implies, is an inflammation of the 
pericardium, the bag or sac which surrounds the heart, and 
known to butchers as the heart-bag. After death arising from 
pleuritic affections effusions are quite commonly found within 
this sac, which are attributed to the sympathy existing between 
the pericardium and the pleura. The fluid is sometimes of a 
bright yellow color, while at others it is of a turbid character 
with considerable lymph floating in it, which collects in a mass 
forming a thick layer upon the internal surface of the sac, 
causing considerable thickening of its walls, and extending over 
the heart in like manner ; adhesions between the two sometimes 
take place. Percival mentions an instance in which this col- 
lection was converted into a substance of the nature of gristle 
of considerable thickness. This disease rarely exists alone, but 
is of a secondary character. 



PERICARDITIS. 



309 



The attendant symptoms are palpitation of the heart, quick- 
ened respiration, sometimes accompanied with a dry cough, 
with a pulse quick, rising to sixty or seventy a minute, full, 
hard, and strong. "Mr. Pritchard, Y. S., Wolverton," says 
Mr. Percival, " with laudable zeal for the promotion of our art, 
so long ago as the year 1833, furnished the veterinarian with 
some practical communications on this subject, which we shall 
find it advantageous to revive upon the present occasion. His 
observations relate particularly to the type termed Hydrops 
Pericardii, which implies the stage of pericarditis when effu- 
sion is likely, or has taken place, 
and the membranous sac is sup- 
posed to contain watery 
fluid, and probably 
lymph as well. The 
symptoms of this af- 
fection, apart from 
pleurisy and pneu- 
the end of pEBicARmTis. Dionia, Mr. Prit- 

chard informs us, are well-marked. They are palpitation of 
the heart, the carotid arteries (passing up the neck) beating 
forcibly and being readily recognized in applying the finger to 
their course in the neck. There is a good flow of blood through 
the jugulars ; a copious return of blood through the neck, when 
the state of the pulse is considered ; the surface of the body 
and the extremities are warm ; and these latter symptoms con- 
tinue within one or two hours of the horse's death. * * * In 
addition to the above symptoms, there is such an expression of 
alarm and anxiety in the countenance of the animal as no other 
malady produces." 




310 ENDOCARDITIS. 

There is no treatment as yet known by which this disease can 
be reached. 



CABDITIS. 

This is an inflammation of the muscular structure of the heart 
comparatively rare, or at least supposed to be so. 

In this affection the animal will be found lame, generally in 
the off fore-leg, but upon examination no cause will be found 
sufficient to account for it. This lameness may appear and 
disappear several times previous to the attack's manifesting 
itself in a more positive form, leaving the impression that the 
lameness was rheumatic. We next find the animal refusing his 
feed ; his heart palpitates violently ; he occasionally gasps, and 
gnashes his teeth ; pulse full, hard, and quick ; there is a wild 
expression of the eyes ; respiration quickened ; mouth hot and 
dry ; and the temperature of the legs varies from moderate to 
cold. 

For "treatment cold water should be frequently given ; take 
one drachm of white hellebore, and divide it into five powders ; 
give one of these on the tongue every three or four hours. 
Bleeding has been recommended ; but the author has not wit- 
nessed any advantages from it, and therefore would on no ac- 
count advise it. 



EiKTDOCAKDITIS. 

This disease, called also palpitation of the heart, or, more 
commonly, thumps, is an inflammation of the lining membrane 
of the heart, and is generally associated with pericarditis ; the 
inflammation readily extending itself from one part to the other 
in consequence of their proximity. 

The symptoms are a violent palpitation of the heart, which 



OSTEO -SARCOMA. 311 

can often be observed at the distance of several yards from the 
animal; pulse full and hard, but not quickened. Although 
this disease is regarded as incurable, we can still palliate the 
symptoms so as to allow of the animal's return to work the 
next day. 

For treatment, give one of the following powders every three 
hours ; of nitrate of potassa one ounce ; pulverized digitalis two 
drachms ; mix, and divide into five powders. Subsequent attacks 
may be warded off by keeping the bowels regular. 



DISEASES OF THE HEAD. 



OSTEOSARCOMA. 

This disease, called commonly Big Head, is not mentioned 
by veterinary authors in Europe, and so far as the author can 
learn, seems to be peculiar to the Western and Southern States. 
It appears, from the rather unsatisfactory accounts at the 
author's command, to originate in the osseous, or bony, struc- 
ture of the face. The bones become much swollen, and are 
represented as presenting a soft, spongy, or cellular appearance, 
the cells being filled with a substance like jelly. This appear- 
ance, however, does not correspond externally with several 
specimens in the author's possession, in which the external sur- 
face of the bones appears to be perfect, but very thin, and very 
much enlarged. 

The symptoms are a swelling of the bones of the face from 
the eye to the nose ; puffy swelling about the limbs ; stiffness 



312 INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 

about the joints; pulse slightly accelerated, and soft; coat 
rough and staring, with considerable debility. 

The treatment usually practised has been to make an incision 
through the skin and insert a small quantity of arsenic into the 
wound ; or else to score the face with a red-hot iron ; which latter 
mode is said to have effected a perfect cure in many cases. 
Neither of these operations, however, strikes us as being very sci- 
entific. The author's friend, Gr. W. Bowler, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
has had some experience in the treatment of this disease, and has 
been very successful. The course pursued by him is to rub the 
swollen parts well once a day with the following ointment : of 
mercurial ointment one ounce, and of iodine ointment two 
ounces ; mix well together for use. Give internally at the same 
time one of the following powders night and morning : calomel 
one ounce ; iodide of potassa two ounces ; pulverized gentian 
root one and a half ounces ; to be made into twenty powders. 
The animal must be kept in a dry, well ventilated stable, and 
the body kept warm so long as this medicine is given. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 

This disease, known also as phrenitis, or, more generally, 
mad staggers, arises from various causes, such as blows, over- 
feeding and little exercise, too tight a collar, etc., etc., 

A heaviness of the head is first noticed ; an unwilling- 
ness to move about ; the lining membrane of the eyelids much 
reddened ; appetite indifferent or lost ; a peculiar dullness of 
the eyes ; and finally, delirium or madness. The animal be- 
comes unmanageable ; beslavers all that comes within his reach, 
whether man, horse, or anything else ; and plunges violently 
about the stall, or wherever he may chance to be. 



MEGRIMS. SI 3 

As this disease is occasioned by a determination of blood to 
the head, it is necessary to use the lancet ; this should be done 
freely, and that too before the delirious stage comes on, other- 
wise it cannot be done properly or beneficially. Cloths wet in 
cold water should be applied to the head ; or, what is better, 
bags of broken ice. Open the bowels with the following, made 
into a ball : Barbadoes aloes one ounce ; pulverized ginger one 
drachm ; pulverized gentian root two drachms ; mix with mo- 
lasses sufficient to form the ball. Give also injections of castile 
soap and water. Give no food for twenty-four hours ; but small 
quantities of water may be frequently given. After the recovery 
of the animal he should be fed very sparingly, and not exposed 
to the hot noonday sun. 

If the occasion of the attack be a tight collar, the remedy is 
simple and easy ; if from over-feeding, the quantity of food 
should be lessened; but little is to be expected by way of 
treatment. 



MEGKIMS. 

This is a sudden determination of blood to the head, generally 
attacking horses while at work, or in harness upon the road. 
Those of a plethoric character are most subject to these attacks. 

The horse suddenly stops in the road, shakes his head, and 
sometimes goes on again ; at other times he falls in a state of 
unconsciousness, the whole system appears convulsed, with the 
eyes wild in appearance and constantly rolling. 

Bleeding upon the appearance of the first symptoms gives 
almost immediate relief; after which the bowels must be opened, 
for which purpose give one and a half pints of linseed oil, or 
the aloes ball will answer ; bran mashes should be given for a 



314 EPILEPSY. 

few days. These attacks may be prevented in the case of horses 
subject to them by moderate feeding and driving, and in warm 
weather by keeping the forehead shaded by a canvas or cloth 
hood elevated on a wire framework about two inches from the 
forehead so as to protect the brain, and admit a free passage of 
air between the two. The author believes that he was the first 
to introduce this hood, which can be attached to the bridle, and 
made as ornamental as may be desired. The use of hoods of 
this kind in very hot weather would prevent the frequent falling 
of horses in our streets from over-heating ; as the heat of the 
sun principally affects the brain in all these cases. 



VERTIGO. 

This disease generally arises from water in the cranial case, 
causing pressure upon the brain. The animal is generally 
attacked in harness, as in the preceding disease ; this arises from 
the fact that the exercise causes the vessels of the brain to be- 
come more active, fuller, and more distended with blood, and 
consequently there is greater pressure upon this sensitive organ. 

The symptoms are similar to those of megrims, with, perhaps, 
the addition of rearing, dropping suddenly as though struck 
with death, and rising in a few moments as if nothing had hap- 
pened, etc. 

The treatment mainly consists in keeping the bowels in good 
order j working moderately ; giving no corn, and but little hay. 



EPILEPSY. 

This disease takes its name from the suddenness of its attack. 
The animal is apparently in a perfect state of health, when sud- 
denly he falls to the ground, generally (as in the two preceding 



STOMACH STAGGERS. 315 

cases), while in harness, without any manifest canse. He re- 
mains in this condition for a short time, and then appears as 
well as ever ; although occasionally a considerable degree of 
stupor is manifested for some time after. 

It may be occasioned by blows; wounds, and other injuries 
about the head ; water in the brain ; tumors ; violent derange- 
ment of the nervous system ; worms ; constipation of the bowels ; 
plethora, etc. 

The same course of treatment should be pursued as in vertigo ; 
these diseases in their symptoms, causes, etc., being so intimately 
connected as scarcely to be distinguishable from each other. 



STOMACH STAGGERS. 

This disease arises principally from over-feeding. The animal 
appears dull and sleepy, with a disposition to pitch forward ; 
stands with his head resting against a wall, manger, or the like, 
or, if at pasture, against a tree ; if he is led out of the stable, this 
will be observed as an involuntary action, in consequence of 
which the head is often much cut and bruised by coming in 
contact with hard or rough substances ; there is constipation 
of the bowels ; pulse scarcely changed from the usual standard ; 
as the attack is severe, the breathing becomes more and more 
labored. 

Blaine regards these symptoms as the first stage of mad stag- 
gers ; but this the author deems a mistake, as animals that die 
from this disease, having presented the above symptoms, scarcely 
have any very marked change in the cerebral region, or the 
brain. 

From the mode of treatment recommended by European 
authors of high repute, the author infers that the attacks are 



316 STOMACH STAGGERS. 

less severe in this country than in Europe, or else that the 
severe treatment there practised is more injurious than the 
disease itself. The whole cause of the disease being apparently 

in the distended condition of 
the stomach from the presence 
of undigested food, all food 
should be removed from the 
manger, and none given for 
forty -eight hours. Give in- 
ternally the following ball : 
Barbadoes aloes one ounce; 
pulverized ginger two 
drachms ; croton oil six drops ; 
mix with molasses, and give 
^^^^^^^^^i" the usual manner. Injec- 

HAYING SCENE. '' „ , J , ■, -, 

tions of soap and water should 
be given, until the bowels are opened ; or, what is far preferable 
when convenient, tobacco-smoke injections. Two drachms of 
the extract of belladonna dissolved in a pail of water, given to^ 
drink once a day for a week, will prove beneficial. Bleeding 
in these cases is, as a general rule, unnecessary and uncalled 
for. F^od should now be given very sparingly ; and no corn 
should be given at any time to the animal after such an attack, 
in consequence of its tendency to heat the blood, and produce 
a plethoric condition of the system. 




AMAUROSIS. 317 



DISEASES OF THE EYE. 



AMAUROSIS. 

In this disease, called also Gutta Serena, or, more generally, 
Glass Eye, we find the eyes bright and clear, with a peculiar 
glassy appearance about them not observed in an eye where 
vision is perfect ; although no alteration in the structure of the 
eye has taken place, yet the horse is partially or totally blind. 
A mere examination of such eyes would not enable us to pro* 
nounce upon the blindness of the animal ; but if he be taken 
from a dark stable to a strong light, it will readily be detected, 
as the light causes no change to take place in the pupil. 

This disease is regarded as paralysis of the optic nerve ; in 
some cases yielding readily to medical treatment, and in others 
proving incurable. Horses are often sold with this disease 
upon them as perfectly sound, and the first intimation which 
the purchaser receives of his horse's being blind is his running 
against a wall-fence, post, or any thing that may chance to be 
in his way. It sometimes makes its appearance very suddenly; 
occasionally it exists in a temporary form as a sympathetic 
affection, as in apoplexy; it also at times occurs during the 
period of gestation, etc. 

Constitutional treatment only is likely to succeed in these cases. 
A physic ball should be given to open the bowels, composed of 
Barbadoes aloes six drachms ; pulverized ginger one drachm ; 
pulverized gentian root two drachms ; mix with molasses. After 
the ball has operated (which should be in twenty-four hours, if 
the aloes are good), give morning and evening half a drachm 



$m 



MEMBRANA NICTITANS. 



of nux vomica mixed in the feed. The author has never wit- 
nessed any beneficial results from bleeding, although it is re- 
commended by some writers. 



INFLAMMATION OP THE MEMBKANA NICTITANS. 

This affection is commonly called the haw, or hooks. The 
membrane affected is somewhat triangular in form, concave on 
the inner side, and convex externally. It is mainly composed 
of cartilage, or gristle, and is situated between the eye ball and 
the side of the orbit, at the inner corner of the eye. In a per- 
fectly healthy condition but a very small portion of this mem- 
brane is visible ; but when in a state of inflammation it bulges 
out very considerably. A portion of the membrane covering 
it becoming, as it were, folded upon itself presents a hook- 
like appearance, which has been regarded by farriers as a 
foreign substance, to which the name of "hooks" has been 
given, and its removal with the knife recommended by them. 
It so happens, however, that this membrane is placed in the 
eye, or attached thereto, to serve a useful purpose : that of 
cleansing the eye from dirt, or any foreign substance that may 
chance to get into it, which is accomplished by throwing it 
over the ball of the eye, and removing any obstruction. In- 
jury must result from cutting away any portion of this mem- 
brane, as its function is in part destroyed ; since the animal 
can no longer throw it over the ball of the eye with the same 
facility as before the operation was performed. In point of 
fact, wherever the hooks, as they are called, are cut out, it will 
be observed that whenever any foreign substance gets into the 
eye, the animal makes a spasmodic effort to throw this mem- 



SIMPLE OPHTHALMIA. 319 

brane over the eye ball, often failing to accomplish it ; and 
thus the eye is rendered more liable to injury ever after. 

Whenever this membrane becomes tumefied, instead of cut- 
ting it out, open the bowels, and apply cold water to the eye 
several times a day. If much inflammation exists, bleed from 
the small vein just below the eye, the course of which vein in 
all thin-skinned animals is quite distinctly marked. 



SIMPLE OPHTHALMIA. 

This disease arises sometimes from a blow inflicted by a pas- 
sionate groom, or from some other external injury, or from a 
foreign body entering the eye, causing such an irritation in 
that delicate organ as sometimes to terminate in blindness. 

The symptoms are considerable swelling and inflammation 
of the eye lids, their under surfaces being very much reddened, 
and the vessels highly injected with blood ; there is also a 
cloudy appearance over the cornea, or transparent part of 
the eye. 

For treatment, if the animal is in a plethoric condition, take 
six or eight quarts of blood from the jugular vein, regulating 
the quantity by the action on the pulse ; otherwise general 
bleeding should not be undertaken. The bowels should be 
freely opened with Barbadoes aloes, six drachms ; pulverized 
ginger root, one drachm; and pulverized gentian root, one 
drachm, made into a ball. Bathe the eye freely with cold 
water ; after which apply with a syringe either of the following 
washes : laudanum, six drachms ; rain, or distilled water, one 
pint ; mix the two, and shake well before using : — or, take 
half an ounce of the extract of belladonna dissolved in one 



320 SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA. 

pint of rain water. Give internally one drachm of powdered 
colchicum morning and evening, in a bran mash ; no grain 
should be given during the treatment ; corn should be especially 
avoided. 



SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA. 

Inflammation of the eye, or specific ophthalmia, is known to 
horsemen as moon-blindness, from the influence which the 
moon is supposed to exert upon it. This, however, is one of 
the many popular delusions which fill the pages of many use- 
less works on farriery. When a horse is once attacked with 
this disease, he is ever after liable to subsequent attacks, at 
intervals varying from one to six months, and generally ter- 
minating in blindness. This termination may, however, be 
warded off for a long time by proper management ; each sub- 
sequent attack rendering such a termination more and more 
certain, from the increased alteration in the structures of 
the eye. 

The horse may appear perfectly well, and the eyes clear and 
bright one day, and the next morning usually one eye will be 
found closed, more particularly if it is exposed to a strong 
light ; little or no swelling will be observed ; the lining mem- 
brane of the eye lid is quite red, and the eye exceedingly 
watery and tender. 

The causes of this disease are mainly attributable to heredi- 
tary predisposition, or to confinement in dark stables, and 
sudden exposure to strong light. Badly ventilated stables, in 
consequence of which the eyes are continually exposed to the 
strong fumes of ammonia arising from the urine, as also hard, 
work in a small collar, are supposed to be exciting causes. 



CATARACT. 321 

These eases require prompt attention, in order to ward off 
the serious consequences which otherwise are in store for the un- 
fortunate animal. The bowels should first be opened with the 
purging ball recommended in simple ophthalmia. Give bran 
mashes only, and when the bowels are opened, give one of 
the following powders night and morning on the tongue : — 
pulverized colchicum, one and a half ounces ; saltpetre, two 
ounces; divide into twelve powders. These will last one 
week, and by that time the eye will usually become clear and 
bright. Use as an injection for the eye, tincture of opium, 
one ounce ; rain, or distilled water, one pint : — or, if more con- 
venient, mix half an ounce of the extract of belladonna in 
one pint of water, and use in the same manner. If the animal 
is in a plethoric condition, bleeding will be found advan- 
tageous ; the quantity to be regulated by the condition of the 
pulse. Place the animal in a cool, well-ventilated location, 
free from any ammoniacal gases. 



CATABACT. 

This disease, which is one of the terminations of specific 
ophthalmia, is an opacity of the crystalline lens, situated 
directly behind the pupil, through which it is visible. The 
first indications of cataract noticed are one or more white 
spots making their appearance within the eye, gradually en- 
larging, and at last blending with each other until the animal 
becomes totally blind. Not much can be done in such cases 
by way of treatment. Its removal by the operation practised 
upon the human eye, and known as " couching," is hardly ad- 
visable, as the horse is forever after unsafe, being very apt to 
21 



322 POLL EVIL. 

shy at almost every object which he encounters, in consequence 
of his sight being but partially restored by the operation. 



WALL EYE. 

This peculiar appearance of the iris in some horses is not the 
result of disease, but is occasioned by the absence of what is 
called the pigment, which gives color to the eye. This pigment 
is secreted upon the inside of the iris, and where it does not 
exist, the iris, or that part of the eye which surrounds the 
pupil (so called from its brilliancy) remains white. Percival 
says : " It is a remarkable fact that this variety of hue in the 
iris corresponds with the color of the hair ; bay and chestnut 
horses have hazel eyes ; brown horses have brownish eyes ; and 
very dark brown or black horses, eyes of a still darker, dusky 
brown shade. This curious relation is still more observable 
in human beings; the diversity of colors and hues in their 
irides being infinitely greater than any thing we behold among 
any one species of animals. Cream-colored and milk-white 
horses have wall eyes, and albinos have red eyes ; in both which 
instances the iris is said to be destitute of any coloring matter 
whatever." 



MISCELLANEOUS DISEASES. 



POLL EVIL. 

This disease arises from blows inflicted upon the poll, or 
back part of the head, of animals whose blood is impure, or in 
a morbid condition. Horses going in or out of stables with 



POLL EVIL. 



323 



low doorways frequently strike their polls ; pulling back upon 
the halter, and blows inflicted by passionate grooms, are 
among the exciting causes of this much dreaded complaint. 
The same injuries inflicted upon an animal in perfect health 
seldom cause any essential trouble ; but when the blood is in 
a morbid condition, fistulous abscesses are formed, which are 
seldom curable by merely local treatment, even when the dis- 
ease is treated in its earliest stages. 

The author has no faith in the seton, so highly recommended 
in such cases, but depends principally upon constitutional 
treatment, which consists in first changing the condition of the 
blood from an unhealthy standard to a healthy one, This may 
be done by the proper use "of alterative medicines, given in 
either of the following forms : Socotrine aloes pulverized, four 
ounces ; soft soap, four ounces ; linseed meal, one and a half 
pounds ; mix with molasses so as to form a mass ; dose, one 
ounce twice a day: — or, Socotrine aloes, eight ounces; soft 
soap, eight ounces ; linseed meal, one and a half pounds ; mix 
and dose as before : — or, the following powder may be used : 
sublimed sulphur, two 
pounds ; sesqui-sulphuret 
of antimony in powder, 
one pound : dose, a table- 
spoonful twice a day in 
the feed. The sesqui- 
sulphuret of antimony 
should never be pur- 
chased in a powdered 
form, as it is often adulterated with lead, arsenic, magnesia, 
or iron ; but should always be procured in conical masses. 




THE TROTTING STALLION AMERICAN ECLIPSE. 



324 MELANOTIC TUMORS. 

If the abscess is soft and pointing, it should be opened, and a 
solution of zinc, two drachms to a quart of water, injected 
into the opening once or twice a day. A saturated solution 
of corrosive sublimate is sometimes used advantageously; 
though the zinc is much safer in the hands of inexperienced 
persons. The nux vomica, in half-drachm doses, is also used 
as an internal remedy with good effect. 



FISTULA OF THE WITHERS. 

This is precisely the same as poll evil, its location alone 
giving it a different name, and requires the same course of 
treatment. Its location is upon the raised part along the 
back, and over the shoulders, known as the withers, and it is 
caused by bruises from the forepart of the saddle, and other 
causes. 



MELANOTIC TUMORS. 

Swellings are generally termed tumors ; but tumors proper 
are swellings in any part of the animal not attended by in- 
flammation, comprehending bony, fatty, fibrous, melanotic, 
etc. For their removal an operation is generally requisite, 
which should be left to the veterinary surgeon. Melanotic, 
or black tumors are, however, peculiar to gray horses, and 
operations upon this class would be of little use, as the entire 
system is usually filled with them ; where one is seen, many 
more may be suspected. The author presented to the Boston 
Yeterinary Institute, some years ago, a large cluster, fifty or 
sixty in number, taken from the abdominal cavity of a gray 
horse, all united together by membranous attachments ; and 



GLANDERS. 325 

there could not have been less than ten thousand of these 
tumors in the animal from which this specimen was taken. 
They will frequently be found about the tail of gray horses, 
not being found in horses of any other color. 



GLANDERS. 

This fatal and much dreaded disease has baffled the efforts 
of veterinary surgeons in all ages of the world, and still 
continues so to do. It is decidedly contagious ; yet as dif- 
ferent diseases are often confounded with it, which may be 
detected by the competent practitioner, no animal should be 
condemned until the symptoms peculiar to glanders, which 
cannot well be mistaken if the disease is fully developed, have 
manifested themselves. The suspected animal should be re- 
moved and kept from all possible contact with any others. 
The author has deposited in the museum of the Yeterinary 
College of Philadelphia the heads of a number of horses that 
were killed as glandered animals, and yet not one of them 
was so ; the suspicious symptoms in each case arising from 
carious teeth. Animals afflicted with ozena have also fre- 
quently been killed as glandered ; and in one case which re- 
cently came under the author's notice, where the animal was 
killed as glandered, the cause of all the difficulty was the 
filling up of the frontal sinuses by bony deposits. 

It is necessary for the attendant to use the utmost caution 
when about a glandered horse, as the disease is freely com- 
municated from the animal to man by inoculation. Of some 
sixty- seven cases reported in the Veterinarian of London as 
occurring in man, but three recovered, notwithstanding the 



326 GLANDERS. 

utmost exertions of the ablest physicians that could be pro- 
cured. 

The most common cause of this disease is the impure air of 
close, ill-ventilated, and filthy stables, which acts injuriously 
upon the organs of respiration, destroys the constitution, de- 
bilitates the system, and renders it susceptible to the attacks 
of disease. Neglected catarrh, also, sometimes terminates in 
glanders ; hard work and bad provender, together with sudden 
changes from exposure to cold and wet weather to hot stables, 
are likewise reckoned among the causes. 

The symptoms are, discharges from one or both nostrils, of 
a glossy, thick, gluey nature, frequently sticking about the 
nostrils in considerable masses. This is a peculiarity which 
other discharges do not possess. This discharge is not always 
copious, as is generally supposed. The Schneiderian membrane 
of the nose changes to a dusky, or dirty yellow, or leaden 
hue ; ulcers appear upon the membrane ; a peculiar raising 
of the nasal bones will be observed, which the author has 
never noticed in any other disease ; the discharge is sometimes 
mixed with blood, and is often fetid ; and one or both of the 
submaxillary glands are swollen and adhere to the jaw bone. 
Too much reliance, however, should not be placed upon this 
swelling, as it frequently accompanies other diseases ; but the 
character of the discharge, and the raising of the nasal bones 
are peculiarities not easily mistaken when the disease is de- 
veloped. As all the other symptoms will be found accom- 
panying other diseases, too much care cannot be exercised in 
deciding upon a case of this disease previous to a full develop- 
ment of the symptoms. 

All treatment thus far has proven a failure. 



FARCY. 327 

FAKCY. 

This is regarded by the author as an incipient stage of 
glanders, or as a type of the same disease, and with proper 
management is curable. Experiments prove that the virus 
from a farcied horse will produce glanders by inoculation in a 
sound one, and that the glandered matter will in like manner 
produce farcy. There are two distinct varieties or stages of 
farcy : one, which is called buUon farcy, is altogether super- 
ficial, being confined to the lymphatic vessels of the skin, and 
readily yields to medical treatment ; the other variety makes 
its appearance in the extremities, generally upon the inside 
of the hind legs, which become completely engorged ; but the 
swelling is very different from the ligamentary thickening, or 
from (edema, being very uneven or lumpy, excessively tender, 
and painful to the touch. Small abscesses are formed, which at 
first discharge a healthy pus, but soon ulcerate, and discharge 
a thin, sanious matter. These abscesses, or tumors, first make 
their appearance on the inside of the hind legs, and then on 
the fore ones in like manner ; the neck and lips come next in 
turn, and they may afterward appear in all parts of the body, 
when glanders will begin to manifest itself. 

By way of treatment, good wholesome food is all important. 
Sulphate of copper in two-drachm doses, combined with one 
or two drachms of pulverized gentian root, will often prove 
successful ; corrosive sublimate, also, in ten or fifteen grain 
doses, night and morning, has often been advantageously 
used ; the doses may be increased to a scruple, or even half a 
drachm, if the animal bears the medicine well. If the animal 
is much debilitated, give calomel in half-drachm doses instead 



328 SCARLET FEVER. 

of the sublimate, or the sulphuret of mercury may be sub- 
stituted. The use of arsenic has also been attended with good 
success, but the author has been more fortunate with the 
muriate of baryta in half-drachm doses, than with any other 
preparation in use. All the tumors should be opened, and 
caustic carefully applied to each ; sulphate of copper, nitrate 
of silver, the per-manganate of potash, or the red-hot iron, are 
the best applications. The following ointment should be 
rubbed along the corded vessels once a day : blue ointment, 
two ounces; hydriodate of potash, two drachms; lard, two 
ounces ; mix well. Or, the red oxide of mercury, two drachms 
to the ounce of lard is very good. 



SCARLET FEVER. 

This disease, otherwise called scarlatina, has too frequently 
been confounded with farcy, notwithstanding the two diseases 
present very different symptoms. It is easily managed, yield- 
ing readily to medical treatment. 

Tor several days previous to any very noticeable symptoms 
being manifest, the animal is off his feed, dull and mopy, with 
mouth hot and dry ; slight or copious discharges from the 
nose, mixed with blood ; the Schneiderian membrane highly 
colored, and presenting numerous scarlet blotches, irregular 
in form, and containing a thin, reddish fluid ; these blotches 
sometimes present a pustular appearance, but upon passing 
the finger over them, nothing of that character can be dis- 
covered ; the whole body is covered with similar spots, which 
sometimes require close examination to discover them ; in 
other cases, little pustules are formed, which break, and dis- 



MANGE. 329 

charge a thin sanious fluid of a reddish color and gluey 
nature; swellings of the legs, sheath, and belly, are usually 
attending symptoms; the respiration is quick; the pulse is 
full and accelerated, and there is a disinclination to move. 

For treatment, the extract of belladonna alone appears to 
be a specific in this disease. It should be given in doses of 
from one half to two drachms, dissolved in a pail of water, and 
given to the animal to drink. No hay should be placed be- 
fore him ; soft mashes only should be allowed, until he is 
convalescent. This treatment, so simple yet so effective, has 
been pursued by the author's friend, Dr. Bowler, of Cincinnati, 
and himself, for the last ten years, with uniform success, not a 
single case having been lost. It is true that the disease is not 
of very common occurrence ; yet during that period the author 
has had over thirty cases. 



MANGE. 

Diseases of the skin are less numerous in the horse than 
perhaps, most other animals ; a circumstance doubtless arising 
from the great care taken of our better class of horses to keep 
the skin clean, thereby promoting its healthy action. Mange 
is identical with the itch in the human body, and is an infec- 
tious disease, the intolerable itching being caused by minute 
insects, called acari. They are first observed with the aid of 
a powerful microscope along the mane and the root of the tail, 
causing a scurfy appearance of the skin. This appearance 
rapidly extends to the neck and body ; spots denuded of hair 
will appear, which gradually run into continuous scabby 
patches. As the disease advances, it thickens and puckers 



330 



MANGE. 



the skin, particularly of the neck, withers and loins. This dis- 
ease is easily cured if properly managed. 

The natural history of these insects is not well known. 
They live only upon, or beneath, the skin of animals. There 
appears to be a distinct variety, peculiar to each species of 
animals. They live for a considerable time after being re- 
moved from the skin, but for how long a period is not pre- 
cisely known. According 



to experiments made it 
appears that they can live 
in pure water for three 
hours; in strong vinegar, 
alcohol, and in a solution 
HP of kali carbonicum, twenty 
minutes ; in a solution of 
sulphuric acid, twelve 
minutes ; in turpentine, 
nine minutes ; and in a so- 
lution of arsenic, four min- 
utes. When they are not exposed to such violent and de- 
structive immersions, it has been said that they will retain life 
for six or eight days. From a comparison of the acari of 
mangy animals, it is supposed that the variety peculiar to 
the horse can live for a much longer period. Mangy horses 
have been removed from their stalls, washed with various pre- 
parations, put into another stable, and completely freed from the 
effects of the disease ; but upon returning to their former stalls, 
or using unwashed their accustomed harness, the disease soon 
showed symptoms of its return. This fact accounts for the 
trouble experienced in curing this disease. The insect is 




THE THREE FRIENDS. 



SURFEIT. 331 

rubbed off upon the sides of the stall, or clings to the harness, 
again to come in contact with the animal. 

For treatment, the animal should be stripped of all harness, 
well washed with acetic acid, and turned into a loose box 
stall away from that in which he has been standing. If this 
course is adopted, one or two washings will generally suffice. 
The harness also should be well washed, and not used for two 
or three months; nor should the horse be replaced in his 
former stall for a less period, and not even then until it has 
been thoroughly cleaned and white washed. A wash of white 
hellebore and water has been much and beneficially used for 
this disease ; and in inveterate cases corrosive sublimate in 
solution is recommended, though there is some danger of its 
absorption ; if this should occur, the animal would quite likely 
be destroyed. A mixture of sulphur, oil, and turpentine is 
highly recommended ; but the author has never witnessed 
the superior qualities of any of these preparations over the 
acetic acid. 



SUBFEIT. 

This disease appears all over the body in the form of pus- 
tules, which seem scaly, and then appear to get entirely well, 
while fresh ones make their appearance, and follow in the 
same course. The hair is rough, staring, and unhealthy in 
appearance; the legs sometimes become much swollen, and 
there is general debility. This disease is supposed to arise 
from bad grooming, bad management, and unwholesome food, 
together with a general plethoric state of the system. 

For treatment, bleed the animal if plethoric, taking from 



332 STRAINS OP THE LOINS. 

the neck vein from four to six quarts ; in the absence of 
plethora, the lancet must not be used. Give a strong purging 
ball, followed by one of these powders twice a day : saltpetre, 
one and a half ounces ; flower of sulphur, two ounces ; black 
antimony, one ounce ; mix and divide into eight powders. 



HIDE BOUND. 

This is a condition of the skin, caused by some morbid action 
in the system. Derangement of the digestive organs will in- 
duce it. The animal must be treated for the disease under 
which it is laboring. 



STRAINS OP THE LOINS. 

Strains are of very frequent occurrence in the horse, in con- 
sequence, doubtless, of the great amount of labor demanded of 
him, which often taxes his powers to the utmost. These strains 
frequently give rise to serious trouble, rendering the animal 
unfit for work and often establishing an incurable lameness. 
Strains of the loins occur most frequently in draft horses, par- 
ticularly in those used in the shafts of drays or carts. Such 
animals on going down hill heavily loaded are very apt to be- 
come injured ; at times the injury is so great that the spinal 
marrow becomes affected, causing paralysis of the hind extre- 
mities, and rendering the animal comparatively useless ever 
after. When the injury is very severe, bleeding should be re- 
sorted to, if the animal can bear it. The following liniment 
will be found an excellent application for strains of all kinds : 
laudanum, gum camphor, spirits of turpentine, tincture of myrrh, 
castile soap, oil origanum, nitrous ether, of each one ounce j 



LOCKED JAW. 333 

alcohol, one quart ; mix all together, and shake well before 
using ; apply two or three times as occasion may require. 



PALSY. 

This is a loss of power in the nervous system. General palsy 
is never found in the horse, it being always partial or limited 
in extent, and described under two heads, paraplegia and hemi- 
plegia. The first is a paralysis of the hind extremities, which 
is of very frequent occurrence ; it sometimes occurs as a sym- 
pathetic affection, in which cases it disappears with the other 
symptoms of the disease. The second form is a palsy of one 
side of the body only, and is of very rare occurrence. When 
paralysis arises from strains whereby the spinal cord is injured, 
it causes the most acute suffering, and the animal usually dies 
in a few days. When the pressure upon the spinal cord is not 
great, the animal is sometimes rendered useful for ordinary 
purposes, but very rarely becomes sound. 

For treatment, first open the bowels if they are the least cos- 
tive, and give internally one of the following powders night and 
morning ; nux vomica, one ounce ; pulverized gentian root, two 
ounces ; Jamaica ginger, one ounce ; mix, and divide into twelve 
powders. Apply warm sheep-skins to the loins, succeeded by 
the following application : linseed oil, one pint ; spirits of harts- 
horn, four ounces ; shake well before using. Perfect rest and 
moderate diet are necessary. 



LOOKED JAW. 

This distressing malady, otherwise known as tetanus or tris- 
mus, is one generally arising from neglected wounds, such as 



334 LOCKED JAW. 

are occasioned by a horse's picking up a nail ; in which case 
the wound, instead of being kept open by the owner, or his 
attendant, is suffered to close up, in consequence of which, if 
there is the slightest disposition to ulceration, matter is formed 
under the horn or hoof, which develops the most alarming 
symptoms, usually in about two weeks after the wound has 
healed. When locked jaw is the result of wounds, it is called 
symptomatic, or traumatic ; when existing without apparent 
cause, it is called idiopathic. The latter is said to be caused in 
some cases by the action of bots and of worms in the intestines. 

The first symptoms observable are a stiff, straggling gait 
behind ; rigidity of the muscles of the jaw, completely locking 
the jaws together; the tongue is sometimes swollen, and con- 
siderable saliva flows from the mouth. As the disease pro- 
gresses, the muscles throughout the body become rigid; the 
animal turns as though there was not a joint in the body ; the 
nose is poked out, the nostrils dilated, and respiration disturbed ; 
the bowels are almost invariably constipated ; on elevating the 
head, a spasmodic or flickering motion of the eye will be ob- 
served, exposing little more than the white parts. When the 
disease is confined to the head and neck, it is called trismus; 
when extended to all parts of the body, it is termed tetanus. 

There can scarcely be any principle laid down to govern the 
treatment of this disease, as cases have recovered under all kinds 
of treatment. The great object is to get the bowels opened ; 
when this is accomplished, the cases usually have a favorable 
termination ; but when the jaws are firmly set, the prospects are 
very limited. Give, if possible, by the mouth one ounce of aloes, 
ten drops of croton oil, two drachms of pulverized gentian root, 
and one drachm of ginger ; make into one ball with molasses. 



RHEUMATISM. 335 

If this cannot be given, keep a ball of aloes in the mouth, the 
action of which may be increased by adding to the ball two 
drachms of calo- 
mel, and omitting 
the c rot on oil. 
Give injections of 
belladonna, half 
an ounce dissolved 
in a pail of water. 
Opium has been 
much used, but is 
giving way to 
other prepara- btron's mazeppa. 

" They left me there to my despair, 
tlOnS. UlVe Upon Link'd to the dead and stiffening wretch." 

the tongue every hour twenty drops of the following mixture : 
hydrocyanic acid and tincture of aconite, of each one ounce ; 
mix, and shake, well together. Blistering the back, from the 
head to the tail, has succeeded in some cases. Chloroform has 
been highly recommended, but appears to have only a tempo- 
rary effect ; it is given in doses of from one to two drachms. 




KHETJMATISM. 

This disease is quite common in the Western States. The 
symptoms are stiffness, lameness, and shifting from one limb to 
another ; sometimes tumefaction is observable about the extre- 
mities. The lameness is sometimes absent, and appears to be 
influenced by changes in the weather. 

For treatment, poultice the feet with mustard and flaxseed 
meal. Give internally of nux vomica, one ounce; pulverized 
gentian root, one and a half ounces ; pulverized ginger, one 



336 HYDROCELE. 

ounce ; mix, and divide into twelve powders ; give one every 
night in the feed. 

The most successful treatment which the author has found, 
when the above has failed to effect a perfect cure, is that 
recommended by Dr. Bowler, of Cincinnati, whose experi- 
ence in baffling this disease has been quite considerable. It is 
as follows : — if the animal is plethoric, bleed freely and give a 
strong cathartic ; follow every morning with one of the following 
balls : pine tar, two ounces ; pulverized gentian root, one ounce ; 
mix all together, and divide into eight balls. Keep the body 
warm, and give no corn. 



CRAMP. 

This complaint occasions considerable alarm to the owner of 
a horse, from the peculiarity of the symptoms. A horse is found 
to go suddenly lame, lameness continuing, dragging one leg 
after him as though it were dislocated or broken. Upon taking 
a whip and striking him, he will sometimes go two or three 
steps in a natural way, and then the leg drags again. Such 
instances have been pronounced fractures by the farrier, and 
even by the young veterinarian such a mistake has been made ; 
indeed, there are instances of the horse's having been killed by 
order of the medical attendant. 

Treatment. Friction by hand-rubbing, and application of 
the liniment recommended for strains. Usually the animal will 
be found all right upon the following day. 



HYDROCELE. 

This disease commonly known as dropsy of the testicles, 
sometimes affects the stallion. It consists of a collection of 



SIT-FASTS. 337 

serum in the tunica vaginalis, or bag containing the testes, 
fluctuating when pressed by the hand, but free from tenderness 
or pain. Its causes are obscure, but it is supposed to result 
from injuries, such as strains, etc. 

For treatment, the scrotum should be punctured, and a weak 
solution of tincture of iodine injected into the tunica vaginalis ; 
or equal parts of port wine, and water of zinc lotion, or lime 
water, may be used with very good effect. The animal should 
be well secured before these preparations, particularly the first, 
are used, as the pain thereby caused may render him for the 
time unmanageable. 



WABTS. 

These fungous growths appear in the horse most frequently 
about the mouth, nose, and lips; but they are occasionally 
found upon other parts of the body. They are sometimes found 
in large numbers about the lips of colts, and are generally rubbed 
off, or drop off; if, however, they grow large and become 
deeply rooted, they may be cut off by passing a needle through 
the centre armed with double thread, and tied tightly around 
the neck on each side. This prevents the possibility of the 
ligatures being rubbed off. Or, they may be painted over with 
the per-manganate of potash, a few applications of which will 
entirely destroy warts of a large size ; or they may be removed 
with a knife. 



SIT-FASTS. 

These are dark, hard, scabby spots upon the back, which are 
dead skin and cannot be easily removed ; but by poulticing for 
several days they become soft and may be torn off. Tincture 
.22 



338 MALL ANDERS AND SELLENDERS. 

of myrrh applied two or three times a day will generally effect 
a cure after the dead skin is removed. 



WABBLES. 

These arise from bruises, which cause superficial swellings 
that sometimes suppurate. They should be freely opened and 
the matter well washed out. A solution of sulphate of zinc, or 
alum-water, is all that is required to effect a cure. 



SADDLE OB HABETESS GALLS. 

These are bruises caused by friction and moisture, occurring 
most frequently in warm weather ; the parts are rubbed raw, 
and sometimes bleed. The treatment is simple and effectual. 
Bathe the parts several times a day with one pint of water and 
half a pint of tincture of myrrh. 



MALLANDEES AND SELLENDEBS. 

These are scurfy eruptions of the back part of the knee 
joint and the front part of the hock joint. They sometimes 
occasion much pain, and lameness in consequence. They con- 
stitute but one disease, the names having reference to the fore 
and hind extremities ; mallenders being applied to eruptions 
upon the fore extremities, and sellenders to those upon the 
hind ones. 

For treatment, wash the parts well with castile soap and 
water, and apply the following : lard, four ounces, and Goulard's 
extract, one ounce, well mixed. 



SURGICAL CASES. 339 

ULCERATION OP THE UDDER. 

Mares are sometimes subject to this disease, which is caused 
by the milk's coagulating in the bag, and causing inflamma- 
tion and suppuration. The udder becomes swollen, hot, 
tender, hard, and knotty. A flaxseed poultice should at once 
be applied, when the abscess will soon be brought to a head, 
which will be known by its smooth, polished appearance and 
its soft feeling. It should then be lanced, and the udder 
bathed twice a day with lard melted as hot as the animal can 
bear. Sometimes it becomes necessary to inject a solution of 
the sulphate of zinc into the opening ; but in ordinary cases 
the hot lard is sufficient, if properly applied. 



INFLAMED VEINS. 

The jugular or neck vein sometimes becomes inflamed in 
consequence of being injured by a bungling bleeder. A swell- 
ing is first noticed, followed by a gaping in the incision in the 
neck, from which an acrid fluid oozes. 

For treatment, bathe the part well with cold water, into 
which a small portion of tincture of myrrh is thrown, and with 
a purging ball a cure is soon effected. 



SURGICAL CASES. 

It frequently becomes necessary, in order to relieve the 
animal from some painful disease, to resort to operations in 
surgery ; this, in fact, has of late years become an important 



340 SURGICAL CASES. 

branch of veterinary practice. When it becomes necessary to 
use the knife, the animal should be spared all useless torture. 
In severe operations, humanity dictates the use of some anaes- 
thetic agent to render the animal insensible to pain. Chloro- 
form is the most powerful of this class, and may be adminis- 
tered with perfect safety, provided a moderate quantity of 
atmospheric air is inhaled with or during its administration. 
Sulphuric ether acts very feebly upon the horse, and cannot 
therefore be successfully used. Chloric ether answers a very 
good purpose, but pure chloroform is preferable. In minor 
operations, the twitch, the side-hobble, or the foot-strap, is all 
that is necessary. When a horse is to be cast for an operation, 
force must be used for its accomplishment. The patent hob- 
bles have been preferred for that purpose by veterinary sur- 
geons generally, though the author prefers a modification of 
the cast-rope and the patent hobbles. This improvement con- 
sists in having a heavy, well-padded leathern collar, each layer 
burned in with rosin, after the style of the old-fashioned fire- 
buckets ; at the bottom of this collar a strong ring is attached, 
secured by an iron band ; through this ring the rope is passed ; 
around the body a strong leathern band is buckled, which 
connects with the top of the collar by a cross strap, which 
keeps it in place ; a hobble band is placed upon each hind 
fetlock, through the D of which th$? rope is passed ; on each 
side of the collar a strong ring is firmly secured, through which 
the rope also passes, the ends of which are then pulled upon 
by one or two men on each side, and the animal let quietly 
down. The author is convinced by experience that this ar- 
rangement is far preferable to any hobble arrangement yet 
seen. It is a mistaken idea that horses must be cast for every 
little operation ; in truth, but few operations require it. 



BLEEDING. 341 

BLEEDING. 

Blood-letting in former times was regarded as the sheet- 
anchor in veterinary practice ; but that day has past. The 
practice of bleeding horses upon all occasions cannot be too 
strongly condemned; the cases where blood-letting proves 
beneficial being comparatively few. Before using the lancet 
the pulse must be examined, the condition of the animal con- 
sidered, and the effects upon that pulse must decide the quan- 
tity of blood to be taken. The pulse will be found following 
the front margin of the masseter muscle, which muscle forms 
the fleshy parts of the head upon each side, called the cheeks. 
By following the front part of 
muscle downward with the thumb, 
near the base of the lower 
jaw, and then passing 
forefingers under, or 
inside of the jaw, the 
pulse will be readily 

felt ; Or, tO point its lady Suffolk. 

location out with more certainty, if an imaginary line is drawn 
perpendicularly from the front part of the ear downward, it 
will cross the point where the pulse is located and felt. 

In a healthy condition the pulse beats from thirty-six to 
forty times a minute ; variation above or below this standard 
indicates a morbid condition of the system. This fact should 
be born in mind in the description of any disease. When 
bleeding is necessary, the neck never should be corded, as 
much injury has at times been caused by this practice. All 
that is requisite is to raise the jugular vein by pressing upon 




342 NEUROTOMY OR NERVING. 

it with the fingers of the left hand, using the lance with the 
right. The old-fashioned mode of bleeding with the fleam 
and blood-stick is a bungling operation, frequently requiring 
several trials before bringing blood, the result of which is an 
inflamed vein. A more convenient, a more certain, and a more 
satisfactory method is by using a spring lance, made for the 
purpose, which never fails in bringing blood upon the first 
trial. It is so contrived as to straddle the vein of the neck, 
which keeps it firm, and prevents its rolling, so that it is im- 
possible to miss bringing the blood when it is once placed 
upon the vein and sprung. By this method of bleeding, the 
covering of the eye and the cording of the neck are unnecessary, 
and the operation can easily be accomplished by one person. 
After the vein has been opened, the blood-pail pressed against 
the vein will cause the blood to flow freely. When the desired 
quantity has been drawn, the vein must be carefully closed by 
passing a pin through the centre of the opening, taking 
up the skin upon both sides, and tying with hair from the 
mane or tail. The pin may be removed in about twenty-four 
hours. 



NEUROTOMY OR NERVING. 

This is one of the most important operations in veterinary 
practice, and one that has been much abused, not only in 
Europe, but even more so in the United States. Its useful- 
ness was first demonstrated by Assistant Professor Sewell, of 
the Veterinary College of London. The operation consists in 
cutting out a portion of the metacarpal nerves on each side 
of the legs, thus destroying the sensibility of the foot. From 
the instantaneous relief experienced by the animal in all cases 



NEUROTOMY OR NERVING. 343 

of foot lameness, no matter from what cause, an opportunity has 
been afforded to dishonest persons for imposing upon the public 
by availing themselves of this practice ; an opportunity, it need 
not be said, which has been freely used, and thus a valuable 
operation has been brought into undeserved disrepute. The 
cases likely to be benefited by this operation are few, and 
should be selected with great care ; otherwise the loss of 
the animal's hoof may be, and often is, the termination of 
the case. 

This operation is recommended by veterinary authors in 
incurable cases of lameness of the navicular joint ; but suffi- 
cient caution is not impressed upon the mind of the reader, to 
enable him to guard against the fatal results which too often 
follow. 

In deciding upon a case for this operation, an animal should 
be selected with a foot as free from contraction as possible ; 
free from corns ; comparatively free from inflammation ; with a 
concave ground surface ; open heels ; hoof free from rings or 
roughness ; and no bony deposits within the hoof. In such a 
case, the operation may be performed with success. A horse 
that has been foundered should not, under any circumstances, 
be operated upon, as ossification of the laminae frequently fol- 
lows such an attack; nor a horse affected with ossification 
of the lateral cartilages, corns, or badly contracted hoof; for 
these are the cases where loss of the hoof is likely to follow, 
rendering the animal useless. 

After the operation has been performed, care should be 
taken in driving the animal ; for it should be remembered that 
no matter what accident may happen to the foot, the animal 
is unconscious of pain. The feet should be frequently exam- 



344 NEUROTOMY OR NERVING. 

ined to see whether the horse has picked up a nail, or other, 
wise injured the foot ; for such injuries would otherwise re- 
main undiscovered until too late to save the animal's life 
or usefulness. The smith should be informed of the opera- 
tion, in order to guard against pricking the animal's foot in 
shoeing. 

It is necessary previous to the operation that the feet should 
be perfectly cool, which condition may be obtained by frequent 
bathings with cold water for several days previous. The horse 
is cast, the foot to be operated upon loosened, and brought for- 
ward by an assistant, it resting upon a bed of straw. A verti- 
cal incision is made about two inches above the fetlock, between 
the cannon bone and back sinew, raising up with the forceps 
the cellular membrane, and carefully dissecting out the nerve. 
The precaution should be taken of placing the finger upon it, 
as the artery has been taken up and cut off before the mistake 
was discovered. Having fairly exposed the nerve, pass a curved 
needle armed with strong thread under it, and by carefully 
drawing it up and down the nerve may be readily separated. 
A sheathed knife is then passed under the nerve, and by a quick 
motion the nerve is severed at the upper part. After the strug- 
gles of the animal cease, the cut nerve may be raised with the 
forceps, and from one-half of an inch to an inch removed. This 
second cut causes no pain. The wound is then closed by three 
single stitches. After operating upon both sides in like manner, 
the animal is allowed to rise. Bandages should then be placed 
upon the leg, and kept saturated for several days with cold 
water. 



TREPHINING. 345 

LITHOTOMY. 

Operations for stone in the bladder of the horse have been 
practised since 1TH, and in many cases very successfully. In 
performing this operation, an ordinary scalpel, a probe-pointed 
bistoury, a fluted whalebone staff, and a pair of curved forceps 
are necessary. The animal should be placed upon his back with 
the hind legs drawn well forward ; a whalebone staff is passed 
up the urethra, which may be felt a little below the anus ; an 
incision, one and a half or two inches in length is made directly 
upon it, obliquely to one side, cutting through the urethra and 
the neck of the bladder ; the forceps are next introduced, and 
the stone removed; after which the parts are carefully closed 
by means of the quill suture, which in this operation is far su- 
perior to the interrupted one, as it more effectually prevents the 
dribbling of urine through the wound, which always occurs with 
the interrupted one, and therefore causes a more speedy union 
of the parts. 



TKEPHINIWG. 

This operation consists in cutting out circular pieces of bone 
with a circular saw, called a trephine, and is most generally 
performed in cases of fracture of the skull, or face. The bone 
removed must be from the sound part contiguous to the frac- 
ture, so as to enable an elevator to be passed inside of the cra- 
nial case, for the purpose of pushing back the broken bone to 
its proper place, and removing all detached pieces. This ope- 
ration is also performed in cases of ozena, by removing a piece 
of bone over the frontal sinuses, situated immediately between 
the eyes, in order to expose the diseased parts at once, that they 
may be washed with proper injections. 



346 TAPPING THE CHEST. 

TENOTOMY. 

This operation is practised for the purpose of strengthening 
crooked legs or sprung knees. It consists in dividing the flexor 
tendons, in order to bring the limb straight. There are but few- 
cases, however, in which the operation would be of much service, 
and therefore care must be exercised in selecting such cases as 
are proper. It would hardly be proper in a young horse, as 
other means less objectionable often succeed. In old horses it 
would not be prudent, as their limbs are generally stiff and 
permanently set ; nor would it be successful in cases where an- 
chylosis or stiff joint existed, as is often found in connection 
with crooked legs and sprung knees. 



COUCHING. 

This is an operation upon the eye for the purpose of remov- 
ing a cataract from the axis of vision. A couching needle is 
passed through the sclerotic coat of the eye a little behind the 
cornea, passing it upward behind the iris to where the cataract 
is located, pressing it downward into the vitreous humor behind 
the iris, where it remains. This operation has not been very 
successful in the horse, by reason of the imperfect restoration 
of the sight thereby afforded, which causes them in almost every 
instance to shy at every object which they encounter, thus ren- 
dering them dangerous upon the road. 



TAPPING THE CHEST. 

This operation consists in passing a round, pointed instru- 
ment, sheathed with a canula, into the chest, in order to draw 



AMPUTATION OF THE PENIS. 34? 

off any accumulation of fluid that may have taken place in the 
viscus. The instrument is passed, after first making a small in- 
cision through the skin, between the eighth and ninth ribs, but 
not too low down. It is pushed gentry forward until it pene- 
trates the pleura, or lining membrane of the chest. The stellet 
is then withdrawn, and the canula is kept in place until the fluid 
ceases to run. If, however, a large quantity exists, all of it 
should not be taken away at one time ; for the pressure upon the 
lungs having been so great, if such sudden relief is afforded, 
nature, unable to accommodate herself to so rapid an alteration 
gives way, and the animal consequently dies. It should there- 
fore be taken away at one, two, or three tappings, as occasion 
may require. Good wholesome food should be allowed. 



PERIOSTEOTOMY. 

Tins operation is most generally performed for painful splints. 
It consists in cutting though the periosteum, or membrane 
covering the surface of all bones, over the splint or node, which 
immediately gives relief. This operation requires the aid of an 
experienced man. 



AMPUTATION" OP THE PENIS. 

This operation is occasionally called for in the horse, particu- 
larly in cases of paraphymosis, or protrusion of the penis, that 
have resisted all other modes of treatment. The operation, as 
performed in England, is unnecessarily tedious, and not as suc- 
cessful as it should be. It is only requisite in performing this 
operation to place a twitch upon the animal, and while he is 
standing to take the penis in the left hand, and with an ampu- 



348 CESEOPHAGOTOMY. 

tating knife in the right to sever it at one stroke. The he- 
morrhage, although considerable, need not occasion any alarm. 
A piece of cotton or soft sponge, saturated with spirits of tur- 
pentine or any other styptic, and placed in the sheath, will soon 
cause the hemorrhage to cease. Fear of hemorrhage, may 
deter some persons from performing what may appear a bold 
operation ; but the author has not known a single operation 
performed in this way to have a fatal termination ; whereas with 
the English mode of operating it frequently does so, beside, 
even if it is successful, rendering the animal useless for a much 
greater period of time. 



CESOPHAGOTOMY. 

This operation is occasionally resorted to where any foreign 
substance, as an apple, potato, carrot, and the like, has lodged 
in the oesophagus, or gullet. Where such obstructions exist, 
gentle manipulations with the hand should first be resorted to ; 
if these are not successful in removing them, the probang is called 
for, and in case of failure thus to dislodge them, this operation is 
the only remaining resort. It is not necessary to cast the animal. 
Cut down directly upon the swollen part of the throat, and re- 
move the obstruction. The wound may then be closed by means 
of the interrupted suture ; that is, by single stitches, at proper 
distances apart, allowing the ends to hang out of the external 
wound, which may be closed in the same manner. The animal 
should be kept on gruel for several days. If the gruel is seen 
to ooze out of the wound when he is swallowing, it should be 
carefully washed away with cold water. The parts should be 
syringed with a weak solution of sulphate of zinc, chloride of 
zinc, or tincture of myrrh. 



HERNIA. 349 

HEKUTA. 

By the term hernia surgeons understand a rupture, or protru- 
sion of some of the viscera out of the abdomen, forming a soft 
tumor. In human practice there are hernias occurring in all 
the viscera of the body ; but in the equine race they are confined, 
with rare exceptions, to the abdominal viscera, the inguinal 
hernia being the most common. This appears in the groin, and 
is a protrusion of the intestine through the abdominal ring, 
which in the stallion frequently passes down into the scrotum, or 
bag, constituting scrotal hernia. These hernias sometimes occur 
during castration in consequence of the violent struggles of the 
animal. In such cases it is best to administer chloroform at once 
in order to quiet the animal and prevent violent strugglings. The 
animal should be put upon his back, and one hand passed up the 
rectum, and one or two fingers of the other placed upon the 
scrotum, when by careful manipulations the intestine can gene- 
rally be replaced. If, however, a reduc- 
tion cannot be effected, an operation will 
be n ecessary. 
The hernia should 
be exposed by 
cutting through 
the integument a 
little upon one 
side, and coming 
down upon the 
hernia, the finger 
is placed upon it, 
and a reduction effected by careful manipulation. * Care should 
be taken that the nails upon the hand are trimmed close, in 




GOOD FOB HEAVY DRAFTS. 



350 roweling. 

order to prevent wounding the intestine. The wound should 
then be closed by means of the interrupted suture. A folded 
cloth should then be applied to the part, and retained by means of 
a continuous bandage crossed between the legs from side to side 
in the form of the figure 8. Sometimes the intestine becomes 
strangulated, constituting strangulated hernia, the reduction of 
which requires an operation as before mentioned. If, however, 
it is found impossible, then to reduce it, the finger should be 
passed through the opening, if possible, and a probe-pointed 
bistoury following upon it, enlarge the opening and replace the 
intestine. The same treatment as before indicated will be ne- 
cessary. 

The symptoms of strangulated hernia are very similar to 
those of acute enteritis, or inflammation of the bowels. These 
may be regarded as the only hernias to which the horse is 
liable. 



EOWELING. 

Rowels were formerly much used, but of late years the seton 
has superseded them. The rowel consists of a round piece of 
sole leather, cut out in the centre wound round with tow, which 
is saturated before using with digestive ointment. The skin is 
cut through, and dissected upon each side sufficiently to admit 
the rowel. This is used principally under the jaws and in the 
breast. The seton answers the same purpose, and is much more 
convenient. It consists in arming a needle made for the pur- 
pose with tape and passing it through the part-desired, the 
seton being saturated with the same ointment as the rowel. 



TIRING. 351 

FIRING. 

The object in firing a horse is to produce an external inflam- 
mation where counter-action is required, as in spavin, ringbone, 
curbs, etc. The operation may be performed upon the animal 
while standing, by placing a twitch and side line upon him ; 
but if the surface to be fired is extensive, and the animal high 
strung, it is better to cast him, particularly where a number of 
oblique, vertical, or horizontal lines are to be drawn. Firing 
is not practised at the present day to the extent that it formerly 
was, and when it is practised every endeavor should be made to 
prevent, as far as possible, the blemishes which always follow 
the operation. Yarious forms of irons have been adopted to 
accomplish this end. The author gives the preference to the 
feathered iron, which is brought down to a very fine edge, and, 
opinions are entertained by veterinary surgeons as to the ad- 
vantages resulting from deep firing as compared with those 
accruing from surface firing. In the author's judgment, if firing 
is resorted to at all, it should be done effectually. His attention 
has recently been called to a firing iron devised by A. Maillard, 
Esq., of Bordentown, New Jersey, which is the best adapted in- 
strument that has ever passed under his notice. It consists of two 
pieces of iron, octagonal in form, about one and a half inches 
long by one and a quarter wide, one piece containing five 
round-pointed projections, placed one at each corner and one 
at the centre, and the other four points, so arranged as, when 
fitted together, to fill up the intermediate spaces of its opposite ; 
both irons being used alternately on the same parts without ex- 
tending the surface fired. This iron will probably supersede 
any iron in use, and thanks are due to the inventor for his in- 



352 TRACHEOTOMY. 

genuity in producing it. Pointed instruments have been before 
used, but far inferior in their arrangement. 



TRACHEOTOMY. 

This operation is occasionally called for in cases of strangles, 
when the swelling threatens suffocation, as it is often the only 
means of saving the animal's life. It consists in making a lon- 
gitudinal incision through the skin immediately over the wind- 
pipe and below the larynx, cutting through the cartilaginous 
rings (two or more, as occasion requires), and inserting in the 
opening a tube of silver made for the purpose, through which 
the animal breathes, instead of through the nostrils. A circular 
piece is sometimes cut out of the windpipe in order to admit the 
tube more freely, which is certainly the better mode of perform- 
ing the operation. In a case of emergency, a piece of elder 
with the pith pushed out will answer temporary purposes. It 
should be well secured from slipping into the windpipe by 
means of a piece of string. 




The great celebrity which Mr. Rarey obtained 
in England and France, owing to his unparalleled 
success in rendering the most vicious and un- 
governable horses perfectly tractable and gentle, 
has excited no small degree of interest and curi- 
osity among us, to ascertain the method which he adopts to 
secure such noteworthy results. To gratify this interest, as laud- 
able as it is natural, we propose in this place giving the leading 
23 (353) 



354 rarey's method op taming horses. 

features of his method, as gleaned from the various English 
publications bearing upon the subject, especially from the little 
work, entitled " The Art of Taming Horses. By J. S. Rarey," 
and edited by the Hunting Correspondent of " The Illustrated 
London News." 

It is needless to premise, that not every man can become a 
Rarey, by the perusal of this, or of any other treatise upon the art 
of breaking horses ; yet it is not claiming too much for this system 
to say, that by its use the large majority of horses may be broken 
more expeditiously, more effectually, and with far more satis- 
faction and pleasure to the breaker than by the adoption of any 
other now known. It is no slight gain, to be able to transfer 
the breaking of horses from ignorant, impatient, and disagree- 
able persons to those who can in every respect appreciate the 
noble qualities of the animal and who will therefore deal with 
him as his high rank in the scale of creation demands. 

The three fundamental principles of the Rarey theory are : 
first, that the horse is so constituted by nature that he will not 
offer resistance to any demand made of him which he fully com- 
prehends, if such demand is made in a way consistent with the 
laws of his nature ; second, that he has no consciousness of his 
strength beyond his experience, and can be handled according 
to our will without force ; and third, that we can, in compliance 
with the laws of his nature, by which he examines all things 
new to him, take any object however frightful around, over, or 
on him, that does not inflict pain, without causing him to fear. 

As to the first proposition : — the horse, although possessed of 
some faculties superior to man's yet being deficient in reasoning 
powers, has no knowledge of right or wrong, of free will and 
independent government, and is not aware of any imposition 



rarey's method of taming horses. 355 

practised upon him, however unreasonable it may be. He can- 
not, consequently, decide as to what he should, or should not 
do, not having the requisite faculties to enable him to argue the 
justice of the thing demanded of him. Had he such faculties, 
taking into consideration his superior strength, he would be 
useless to man as a servant. If he had mind in proportion to 
his strength, he would roam through the fields at large, yield- 
ing service to no one. His nature has been wisely formed to 
be operated upon by the knowledge of man according to the 
dictates of his will, and he may properly be termed an uncon- 
scious submissive servant. This truth is verified in every day's 
experience by the abuse to which he is subjected. Any one 
who chooses to be so cruel can mount the noble steed, and run 
him till he drops with fatigue, or, as is often the case with the 
more spirited, falls dead beneath his rider. If he had the power 
to reason, would he not rear and pitch his rider, rather than 
suffer him to run him to death ? Happily for us, he has no 
thought of disobedience, except by impulse caused by the vio- 
lation of the law of his nature. If then, he is disobedient, it is 
the fault of man. 

As to the second : the fact that the horse is unconscious of 
the amount of his strength, can be proven to the satisfaction 
of any one. Were it otherwise, the light vehicle in which he 
is placed, the slender reins and harness which guide and con- 
fine him, would be snapped asunder in an instant, at his own 
volition ; no hitching-post could restrain him against his will, 
no saddle girth be placed around his body. These facts, 
made common by every-day occurrence, are not regarded as 
anything wonderful. Their continued existence serves to re- 
move us from all consideration of them. 



356 barey's method op taming horses. 

As to the third : there being, as we know from a natural 
course of reasoning, some cause for every impulse or move- 
ment of either mind or action, and this law governing every 
action or movement of the animal kingdom, there must be 
some cause before fear can exist ; and if fear exists from the 
effects of imagination, and not from the infliction of real 
pain, it can be removed by complying with those laws of 
nature, by which the horse examines an object, and deter- 
mines upon its innocence or harm. 

A log or stump by the roadside, for example, may be, in 
the imagination of the horse, some great beast about to pounce 
upon him ; but after he is taken up to it, and allowed to stand 
by it for a little time, and to touch it with his nose, and to 
go through his process of examination, he will not care any- 
thing more about it. The same principle and process will 
have the same effect with any other object, however frightful 
in appearance, in which there is no harm. 

These principles being taken as the basis, whatever obstacles 
oppose the proper breaking of horses are readily surmounted 
by the Rarey method, commencing with the first steps to be 
taken with the colt, and thence proceeding through the whole 
task of breaking. 

How to Call a Colt from Pasture. — Go to the pasture 
and walk around the whole herd quietly, and at such a dis- 
tance as not to cause them to scare and run. Then approach 
them very slowly, and if they stick up their heads and seem to 
be frightened, stand still until they become quiet, so as not to 
make them run before you are close enough to drive them in 
the direction you want them to go. And when you begin 
to drive, do not flourish your arms or halloo, but gently fol- 



rarey's method of taming horses. 35*7 

low them, leaving the direction open that you wish them to 
take. Thus taking advantage of their ignorance, you will be 
able to get them into the pound as easily as the hunter drives 
the quails into his net. For, if they have always run in the 
pasture uncared for (as many horses do in prairie countries 
and on large plantations), there is no reason why they should 
not be as wild as the sportman's birds, and require the same 
gentle treatment, if you want to get them without trouble; 
for the horse, in his natural state is as wild as a stag, or any 
of the undomesticated animals, though more easily tamed. 

How to Stable a Colt without trouble. — The next step 
will be, to get the horse into a stable or shed. This should 
be done as quietly as possible, so as not to excite any sus- 
picion in the horse of any danger befalling him. The best 
way to do this is to lead a broken horse into the stable first, 
and hitch him, then quietly walk around the colt and let him 
go in of his own accord. This should be undertaken slowly 
and considerately, as one wrong move may frighten your 
horse, and make him think it necessary to escape at all haz- 
ards for the safety of his life— and thus make two hours' work 
of a ten minutes' job ; and this would be all your own fault, 
and entirely unnecessary-— /or he will not run unless you run 
after him, and that would not be good policy unless you knew 
that you could outrun him, for you will have to let him stop 
of his own accord after all. But he will not try to break 
away uuless you attempt to force him into measures. If he 
does not see the way at once, and is a little fretful about 
going in, do not undertake to drive him, but give him a little 
less room outside, by gently closing in around him. Do not 
raise your arms, but let them hang at your side, for you might 
as well raise a club : the horse has never studied anatomy, 



358 



RAREY'S METHOD OF TAMING HORSES. 



and does not know but that they will unhinge themselves and 
fly at him. If he attempts to turn back, walk before him, 
but do not run ; if he gets past you, encircle him again in the 
same quiet manner, and he will soon find that you are not 
going to hurt him ; and then you can walk so close around 
him that he will go into the stable for more room, and to get 
further from you. As soon as he is in, remove the quiet 
horse and shut the door. This will be his first notion of con- 
finement — not knowing how he got into such a place, nor how 
to get out of it. That he may take it as quietly as possible, see 
that the shed is entirely free from dogs, chickens, or anything 
that would annoy him. Then give him a few ears of corn, 
and let him remain alone fifteen or twenty minutes, until he 
has examined his apartment, and become reconciled to his 
confinement. 

While he is eating, see that your 
halter is ready and all right, and de- 
termine for yourself the best mode of 
|| operation. Always use a leather hal- 
ter, and be sure to have it made so 
that it will not draw tight around his 
nose if he pulls on it. It should be of 
the right size to fit his head easily and 
| nicely, so that the nose-band will not 
be too tight or too loose. Never put 
I a rope halter on an unbroken colt, 
bridle with a wooden gag- under any circumstances whatever. 

BIT FOR CONQUERING VICIOUS 

horses. Rope halters have caused more horses 

to hurt or kill themselves than would pay for twice the cost 
of all the leather halters that have ever been used for the 




rarey's method op taming horses. 359 

purpose of breaking colts. It is almost impossible to break 
a colt that is very wild with a rope halter, without having him 
pull, rear, and throw himself, and thus endanger his life ; and 
this, because it is just as natural for a horse to try to get his 
head out of anything that hurts it, or feels unpleasant, as it 
would be for you to try to get your hand out of a fire. The 
cords of the rope are hard and cutting ; this makes him raise 
his head and draw on it, and as soon as he pulls, the slip noose 
(the way rope halters are always made) tightens, and pinches 
his nose, and then he will struggle for life, until, perchance, he 
throws himself. But this is not the worst. A horse that has 
once pulled on his halter can never be as well broken as one 
that has never pulled at all. 

Before anything more is attempted with the colt, some of 
the characteristics of his nature must be noticed, n that his 
motions may be better understood. Every one that has ever 
paid any attention to the horse, has noticed his natural in- 
clination to smell everything which to him looks new and 
frightful. This is their strange mode of examining everything. 
And when they are frightened at anything, though they look 
at it sharply, they seem to have no confidence in their eyesight 
alone, but must touch it with their nose before they are en- 
tirely satisfied ; and, as soon as they have done that, all seems 
right. 

If you want to satisfy yourself of this characteristic of the 
horse, and to learn something of importance concerning the 
peculiarities of his nature, etc., turn him into the barn yard, 
or a large stable will do, and then gather up something that 
you know will frighten him — a red blanket, buffalo robe, or 
something of that kind. Hold it up so that he can see it, he 




360 karey's method of taming horses. 

will stick up his head and snort. Then throw it down some- 
where in the centre of the lot or barn, and walk off to one 
side. Watch his motions, and study his nature. If he is 
frightened at the object, he will not rest until he has touched 

it with his nose. He will 
begin to walk around the 
robe and snort, all the time 
STettiner a little closer, until 

STRAP FOR THE BIGHT FORE LEG. (Seepages & vu " i "b " **»■"« ^"^ j 

366-370.) he finally gets within reach 

of it. He will then very cautiously stretch out his neck 
as far as he can reach, merely touching it with his nose, as 
though he thought it was ready to fly at him. But after he 
has repeated these touches for a few times, for the first time 
(though he has been looking at it all the while) he seems to 
have an idea of what it is. When he has found, by the sense 
of feeling, that it is nothing that will do him any harm, he is 
ready to play with it. If you w 7 atch him closely, you will see 
him take hold of it with his teeth, and raise it up, and pull at 
it ; and in a few minutes you can see that he has not that same 
wild look about his eye, but that he stands like a horse biting 
at some familiar stump. 

Yet the horse is never so well satisfied wnen he is about any- 
thing that has frightened him, as when he is standing with his 
nose to it ; and in nine cases out of ten, you will see some of that 
same wild look about him again, as he turns to walk from it. 
You will, probably, see him looking back very suspiciously as 
he walks away, as though he thought it might come after him 
yet. In all probability he will have to go back and make 
another examination before he is satisfied ; but he will familiar- 
ize himself with it, and if he should run in that field for a few 



rarey's method of taming horses. 361 

days, the robe that frightened him so much at first will be no 
more to him than a familiar stump. 

It might very naturally be supposed from the fact of the 
horse's applying his nose to everything new to him, that he 
always does so for the purpose of smelling these objects ; but 
it is as much or more for the purpose of feeling, and he makes 
use of his nose, or muzzle (as it is sometimes called), as we 
would of our hands ; because it is the only organ by which he 
can touch or feel anything with much susceptibility. - 

He invariably makes use of the four senses — seeing, hear- 
ing, smelling, and feeling — in all of his examinations, of 
which the sense of feeling is, perhaps, the most important. In 
the experiment with the robe, his gradual approach and final 
touch with his nose was as much for the purpose of feeling as 
anything else, his sense of smell being so keen that it would 
not be necessary for him to touch his nose against anything 
in order to get the proper scent ; for it is said that a horse 
can smell a man at a distance of a mile. Besides, if the scent 
of the robe was all that was necessary, he could get that 
several rods off; whereas, we know from experience, that if a 
horse sees and smells a robe a short distance from him, he is 
very much frightened (unless he is used to it) until he touches 
or feels it with his nose ; which is a positive proof that feeling 
is the controlling sense in this case. 

It is a prevalent opinion among horsemen generally that 
the sense of smell is the governing sense of the horse; and 
with that view many receipts of strong-smelling oils, etc., 
have been concocted in order to tame him. All of these as 
far as the scent goes, have no effect whatever in taming him, or 
conveying any idea to his mind ; though the acts that accom- 




362 rarey's method oe taming horses. 

pany these efforts — handling him, touching him about the 
nose and head, and patting him, as you are directed to do, 
after administering the articles, may have a very great effect, 
which is mistaken for the effect of the ingredients used. 

Approaching a Colt. — In order to take horses as we 
find them, of all kinds, and to train them to our liking, we 
should always take with us, when we go into a stable to train 

a colt, a long switch whip 
(whalebone buggy whips are 
the best) with a good silk 
cracker, so as to cut keenly 
and make a sharp report. 
strap foe the OFF fore leq. (See p. 370.) This, if handled with dexter- 
ity, and rightly applied, accompanied with a sharp, fierce word, 
will be sufficient to enliven the spirits of any horse. With 
this whip in your right hand, with the lash pointing backward, 
enter the stable alone. It is a great disadvantage in training 
a horse to have any one in the stable with you ; you should be 
entirely alone, so as to have nothing but yourself to attract 
his attention. If he is wild, you will soon see him on the 
opposite side of the stable from you ; and now is the time to 
use a little judgment. 

Accordingly, when you have entered the stable, stand still, 
and let your horse look at you a minute or two, and as soon 
as he is settled in one place, approach him slowly, with both 
arms stationary, your right hanging by your side, holding the 
whip as directed, and the left bent at the elbow, with your 
hand projecting. As you approach him, go not too much 
toward his head or croup, so as not to make him move either 
forward or backward, thus keeping your horse stationary ; if 



rarey's method of taming horses. 363 

he does move a little either forward or backward, step a little 
to the right or left very cautiously ; this will keep him in one 
place. As you get very near him, draw a little to his shoulder, 
and stop a few seconds. If you are in his reach he will turn 
his head and smell your hand, not that he has any preference 
for your hand, but because that is projecting, and is the nearest 
portion of your body to the horse. This all colts will do, 
and they will smell your naked hand just as quickly as they 
will of anything that you can put in it. 

As soon as he touches your hand with his nose, caress him 
as before directed, always using a very light, soft hand, merely 
touching the horse, always rubbing the way the hair lies, so 
that your hand will pass along as smoothly as possible. As 
you stand by his side, you may find it more convenient to rub 
his neck or the side of his head, which will answer the same 
purpose as rubbing his forehead. Favor every inclination of 
the horse to smell or touch you with his nose. Ahvays follow 
each touch or communication of this hind with the most tender 
and affectionate caresses, accompanied with a kind look, and 
pleasant word of some sort, such as, " Ho ! my little boy — ho ! 
my little boy !" " Pretty boy !" "Nice lady !" or something of 
that kind, constantly repeating the same words, with the same 
kind, steady tone of voice ; for the horse soon learns to read the 
expression of the face and voice, and will know as well when 
fear, love, or anger prevails, as you know your own feelings ; 
two of which, fear and anger, a good horseman should never 
feel. 

If your horse, instead of being wild, seems to be of a stub- 
born or mulish disposition ; if he lays back his ears as you ap- 
proach him, or turns his heels to kick you, he has not that regard 



364 RAREY'S METHOD OF TAMING HORSES. 

or fear of man that he should have, to enable you to handle him 
quickly and easily ; and it might be well to give him a few sharp 
cuts with the whip, about the legs, pretty close to the body. It 
will crack keenly as it plies around his legs, and the crack of 
the whip will affect him as much as the stroke ; besides, one 
sharp cut about his legs will affect him more than two or three 
over his back, the skin on the inner part of his legs or about his 
flank being thinner, more tender, than on his back. Do not 
whip him much — -just enough to frighten him ; it is not because 
we want to hurt the horse that we whip him — we only do it to 
frighten vice and stubbornness out of him. Whatever you do, 
do quickly, sharply, and with a good deal of fire, but always 
without anger. If you are going to frighten him at all, you 
must do it at once. Never go into a pitched battle with your 
horse, and whip him until he is mad and will fight you ; it would 
be better not to touch him at all, for you will establish, instead 
of fear and respect, feelings of resentment, hatred, and ill-will. 
If you can succeed in frightening him, you can whip him with- 
out making him mad ; for fear and anger never exist together 
in the horse, and as soon as one is visible, the other disappears. 
After you have frightened him, so that he will stand up straight 
and pay some attention to you, approach him again, and caress 
him a good deal more than you whipped him ; then you will 
excite the two controlling passions of his nature, love and fear, 
and as soon as he learns what you require, he will obey quickly. 
How to Halter and Lead a Colt. — As soon as you have 
tamed the colt a little, take the halter in your left hand, and 
approach him as before, and on the same side that you have 
tamed him. If he is very timid about your approaching closely 
to him, you can get up to him quicker by making the whip a 



raeey's method of taming horses. 365 

part of your arm, and reaching out very gently with the butt end 
of it, rubbing him lightly on the neck, all the time getting a 
little closer, shortening the whip by taking it up in your hand, 
until you finally get close enough to put your hands on him. 
If he is inclined to hold his head from you, put the end of the 
halter-strap around his neck, drop your whip, and draw very 
gently ; he will let his neck give, and you can pull his head to 
you. Then take hold of that part of the halter which buckles 
over the top of his head, and pass the long side, or that part 
which goes into the buckle, under his neck, grasping it on the 
opposite side with your right hand, letting the first strap loose 
— the halter will be sufficient to hold his head to you. Lower 
the halter a little, just enough to get his nose into that part 
which goes around it ; then raise it somewhat, and fasten the 
top buckle, and you will have it all right. The first time you 
halter a colt you should stand on the left side, pretty well back 
to his shoulder, only taking hold of that part of the halter that 
goes around his neck ; then with your two hands about his neck 
you can hold his head to you, and raise the halter on it without 
making him dodge by putting your hands about his nose. You 
should have a long rope or strap ready, and as soon as you have 
the halter on, attach this to it, so that you can let him walk the 
length of the stable without letting go of the strap, or without 
making him pull on the halter, for if you only let him feel the 
weight of your hand on the halter, and give him rope when he 
runs from you, he will never rear, pull, or throw himself, yet you 
will be holding him all the time, and doing more toward gent- 
ling him than if you had the power to snub him right up, and 
hold him to one spot; because he does not know anything about 
his strength, and if you don't do anything to make him pull, he 



366 rarey's method oe taming horses. 

will never know that he can. In a few minutes you can begin 
to control him with the halter ; then shorten the distance be- 
tween yourself and the horse by taking up the strap in your 
hand. 

As soon as he will allow you to hold him by a tolerably short 
strap, and to step up to him without flying back. You can 

begin to give him some 
idea about leading. 
But to do this, do not 
go before and attempt 
to pull him after you, 
but commence by pull- 
ing him very quietly 
to one side. He has 
nothing to brace either 
side of his neck, and 

taming the horse. (See page 368.) 

will soon yield to a 
steady, gradual pull of the halter ; and as soon as you have pulled 
him a step or two to one side, step up to him and caress him, and 
then pull him again, repeating this operation until you can pull 
him around in every direction, and walk about the stable with 
him, which you can do in a few minutes, for he will soon think 
when you have made him step to the right or left a few times, 
that he is compelled to follow the pull of the halter, not know- 
ing that he has the power to resist your pulling; besides, you 
have handled him so gently that he is not afraid of you, and 
you always caress him when he comes up to you, and he likes 
that, and would just as lief follow you as not. After he has 
had a few lessons of that kind, if you turn him out in a field, he 
will come up to you every opportunity he gets. 




rarey's method oe taming horses. 36T 

You should lead him about in the stall some time before you 
take him out, opening the door so that he can see out, leading 
him up to it and back again, and past it. See that there is 
nothing ont he outside to make him jump when you take him 
out, and as you go out with him, try to make him go very slowly, 
catching hold of the halter close to the jaw with your left hand, 
while the right is resting on the top of the neck, holding to his 
mane. After you are out with him a little while, you can lead 
him about as yon please. 

Don't let any second person come up to you when you first 
take him out ; a stranger taking hold of the halter would 
frighten him, and make him run. There should not even be 
any one standing near him, to attract his attention or scare 
him. If you are alone, and manage him rightly, it will not 
require any more force to lead or hold him than it would to 
manage a broken horse. 

How to Tie up a Colt. — If you want to tie up your colt, put 
him in a tolerably wide stall, which should not be too long, and 
should be connected by a bar or something of that kind to the 
partition behind it ; so that, after the colt is in he cannot go far 
enough back to take a straight, backward pull on the halter ; 
then by tying him in the centre of the stall, it would be impos- 
sible for him to pull on the halter, the partition behind prevent- 
ing him from going back, and the halter in the centre checking 
him every time he turns to the right or left. In a stall of this 
kind you can break auy horse to stand tied with a light strap, 
anywhere, without his ever knowing anything about pulling. 
For if you have broken your horse to lead, and have taught 
him the use of the halter (which you should always do before 
you hitch him to anything), you can hitch him in any kind of 



368 rarey's method op taming horses. 

a stall, and if you give him something to eat to keep him up to 
his place for a few minutes at first, there is not one colt in fifty 
that will pull on his halter. 

How to Tame a Horse. — Take up one fore-foot and bend 
his knee till his hoof is bottom upward, and nearly touching 
his body; then slip a loop over his knee, and up until it comes 
above the pastern-joint, to keep it up, being careful to draw the 
loop together between the hoof and pastern-joint with a second 
strap of some kind to prevent the loop from slipping down and 
coming off. This will leave the horse standing on three legs ; 
you can now handle him as you wish, for it is utterly impossible 
for him to kick in this position. There is something in this 
operation of taking up one foot, that conquers a horse quicker 
and better than anything else you can do to him. There is no 
process in the world equal to it to break a kicking horse, as 
there is a principle of this kind in his nature that by conquer- 
ing one member, you conquer, to a great extent, the whole 
horse. 

This will conquer him better than anything you could do, 
and without any possible danger of hurting himself or you 
either, for you can tie up his foot and sit down and look at him 
until he gives up. When you find that he is conquered, go to 
him, let down his foot, rub his leg with your hand, caress him, 
and let him rest a little ; then put it up again. Repeat this a 
few times, always putting up the same foot, and he will soou 
learn to travel on three legs, so that you can drive him some 
distance. As soon as he gets a little used to this way of tra- 
veling, put on your harness, and hitch him to a sulky. If he 
is the worst kicking horse that ever raised a foot, you need not 
be fearful of his doing any damage while he has one foot up, 



rarey's method of taming horses. 369 

for he cannot kick, neither can he run fast enough to do any 
harm. And if he is the wildest horse that ever had harness on, 
and has run away every time he has been hitched, you can now 
hitch him in a sulky, and drive him as you please. If he wants 
to run, you can let him have the lines, and the whip too, with 
perfect safety, for he can go but a slow gait on three legs, and 
will soon be tired, and willing to stop ; only hold him enough 
to guide him in the right direction, and he will soon be tired 
and willing to stop at the word. Thus you will effectually cure 
him at once of any further notion of running off. Kicking 
horses have always been the dread of everybody ; but by this 
new method you can harness them to a rattling sulky, plough, 
wagon, or anything else in its worst shape. They may be 
frightened at first, but cannot kick, or do anything to hurt them- 
selves, and will soon find that you do not intend to hurt them, 
and then they will not care anything more about it. You can 
then let down the leg and drive along gently without any further 
trouble. By this new process a bad kicking horse can be taught 
to go gentle in harness in a few hours' time. 

How to Make a Horse lie down. — To make a horse lie 
down, bend his left fore-leg and slip a loop over it, so that he 
cannot get it down. Then put a surcingle round his body, and 
fasten one end of a long strap around the other fore-leg, just 
above the hoof. Place the other end under the before-described 
surcingle, so as to keep the strap in the right direction ; take 
a short hold of it with your right hand ; stand on the left side 
of the horse, grasp the bit in your left hand, pull steadily on the 
strap with your right ; bear against his shoulder till you cause 
him to move. As soon as he lifts his weight, your pulling will 
raise the other foot, and he will have to come on his knees- 
24 



310 



rarey's method op taming horses. 



Keep the strap tight in your hand, so that he cannot straighten 
his leg if he rises up. Hold him in this position, and turn his 
head toward you ; bear against his side with 
your shoulder, not hard, but with a steady, 
equal pressure, and in 
about ten minutes he 
will lie down. As soon 
as he lies down, he will 
be completely con- 
quered, and you can 
handle him as you 
please. Take off the 
straps, and straighten 




TEACHING THE HORSE TO LIE VOWS 



out his legs ; rub him lightly about the face and neck with your 
hand the way the hair lies ; handle all his legs, and after he has 
lain ten or twenty minutes, let him get up again. After rest- 
ing him a short time, make him lie down as before. Repeat 
the operation three or four times, which will be sufficient for 
one lesson. Give him two lessons a day, and when you have 
reached four lessons, he will lie down by taking hold of one 
foot. As soon as he is well broken to lie down in this way, 
tap him on the opposite leg with a stick when you take hold of 
his foot, and in a few days he will lie down from the mere motion 
of the stick. 

To Accustom a Horse to Strange Sounds and Sights. — 
It is an excellent practice to accustom all horses to strange 
sounds and sights, and of very great importance to young 
horses which are to be ridden or driven in large towns, or 
used as chargers. Although some horses are very much more 
timid and nervous than others, the very worst can be very 



rarey's method of taming horses. 371 

much improved by acting on the first principles laid down in 
the introduction to this article — that is, by proving that the 
strange sights and sounds will do them no harm. 

When a railway is first opened, the sheep, the cattle, and 
especially the horses, grazing in the neighboring fields, are 
terribly alarmed at the sight of the swift, dark, moving trains, 
and the terrible snorting and hissing of the steam engines. 
They start away — they gallop in circles — and when they stop, 
gaze with head and tail erect, until the monsters have dis- 
appeared. But from day to day the live stock become more 
accustomed to the sight and sound of the steam horse, and 
after a while they do not even cease grazing when the train 
passes. They have learned that it will do them no harm. 
The same result may be observed with respect to young horses 
when first they are brought to a large town, and have to meet 
great loads of hay, omnibuses crowded with passengers, and 
other strange or noisy objects ; if judiciously treated, not 
flogged and ill-used, they lose their fears without losing their 
high courage. 

To accustom a Horse to a Z>ri«m. —Place it near him on 
the ground, and without forcing him, induce him to smell it 
again and again, until he is thoroughly accustomed to it. 
Then lift it up, and slowly place it on the side of his neck, 
where he can see it, and tap it gently with a stick or your 
finger. If he starts, pause, and let him carefully examine it. 
Then commence again, gradually moving it backward until it 
rests upon his withers, by degrees playing louder and louder, 
pausing always when he seems alarmed, to let him look at it 
and smell, if needful. In a very few minutes you may play 
with all your force, without his taking any notice. When 



372 rarey's method op taming horses. 

this practice has been repeated a few times, your horse, how- 
ever spirited, will rest his nose nnmoved on the big drum, 
while the most thundering piece is played. 

To teach a Horse to bear an Umbrella — Go through the 
same cautious forms, let him see it, and smell it, open it by 
degrees, gain your point inch by inch, passing it always from 
his eyes to his neck, and from his neck to his back and tail ; 
and so with a riding-habit ; in half an hour any horse may 
be taught that it will not hurt him, and then the difficulty is 
over. 

To fire off a Horse 's back. — Begin with caps, and, by de- 
grees, as with the drum. Instead of lengthening the reins, 
stretch the bridle hand to the front, and raise it for the car- 
bine to rest on, with the muzzle clear of the horse's head, a 
little to one side. Lean the body forward without rising in 
the stirrups. Avoid interfering ivith the horse's mouth, or 
exciting his fears by suddenly closing your legs either be- 
fore or after firing — be quiet yourself, and your horse 
will be quiet. The colt can learn to bear a rider on his bare 
back during his first lessons, when prostrate and powerless, 
fast bound by straps. The surcingle has accustomed him to 
girths, he leads well, and has learned that when the right rein 
is pulled he must go to the right, and when the left rein to 
the left. You may now teach him to bear the bit and the 
saddle, if you have not placed it upon his back while on the 
ground. 

How to Accustom a Horse to a Bit. — You should use a 
large, smooth, snaffle bit, so as not to hurt his mouth, with a 
bar to each side, to prevent the bit from pulling through 
either way. This you should attach to the head-stall of your 



RAREY'S METHOD OP TAMING HORSES. 



3T3 



bridle, and put it on your colt without any reins to it, and let 
him run loose in a large stable or shed some time, until he 
becomes a little used to the bit, and 
will bear it without trying to get it out 
of his mouth. It would be well, if con- 
venient, to repeat this several times, 
before you do anything more 
with the colt ; as soon as he will 
bear the bit, attach a single rein 
t o i t. You 




STRUGGLES OF THE VICIOUS HORSE AGAINST LYING DOWN. 



should also 
have a halter 
on your colt, 
or a bridle 
made after the 
fashion of a 
shatter, with a 
strap to it, so 
that you can 

hold or lead him about without pulling at the bit much. 
He is now ready for the saddle. 

The Proper Way to Bit a Colt. — Farmers often put bit- 
ting harness on a colt the first thing they do to him, buckling 
up the bitting as tight as they can draw it, to make him carry 
his head high, and then turn him out in a field to run half a 
day at a time. This is one of the worst punishments that 
could be inflicted on the colt, and is very injurious to a young 
horse that has been used to running in pasture with his head 
down. Colts have been so seriously injured in this way that 
they have never recovered. 



3T4 rarey's method op taming horses. 

A horse should be well accustomed to the bit before you 
put on the bitting harness, and when you first bit him you 
should only rein his head up to that point where he naturally 
holds it, let that be high or low ; he will soon learn that he 
cannot lower his head, and that raising it a little will loosen 
the bit in his mouth. This will give him the idea of raising 
his head to loosen the bit, and then you can draw the bitting a 
little tighter every time you put it on, and he will still raise 
his head to loosen it ; by this means you will gradually get his 
head and neck in the position you want him to carry them, 
and give him a nice and graceful carriage without hurting him, 
making him mad, or causing his mouth to get sore. 

If you put the bitting on very tight the first time, he cannot 
raise his head enough to loosen it, but will bear on it all the 
time, and paw, sweat, and throw himself. Many horses have 
been killed by falling backward with the bitting on ; their 
heads being drawn up strike the ground with the whole weight 
of the body. Horses that have their heads drawn up tightly 
should not have the bitting on more than fifteen or twenty 
minutes at a time. 

How to Saddle a Colt. — The first thing will be to tie each 
stirrup-strap into a loose knot to make them short, and pre- 
vent the stirrups from flying about and hitting him. Then 
double up the skirts and take the saddle under your right 
arm, so as not to frighten him with it as you approach. 
When you get to him rub him gently a few times with your 
hand, and then raise the saddle very slowly, until he can see 
it, and smell and feel it with his nose. Then let the skirt 
loose, and rub it very gently against his neck the way the hair 
lies, letting him hear the rattle of the skirts as he feels them 



rarey's method op taming horses. St 5 

against him ; each time getting a little further backward, and 
finally slipping it over his shoulders on his back. Shake it a 
little with your hand, and in less than five minutes you can 
rattle it about over his back as much as you please, and pull 
it off and throw it on again, without his paying much atten- 
tion to it. 

As soon as you have accustomed him to the saddle, fasten 
the girth. Be careful how you do this. It often frightens the 
colt when he feels the girth binding him, and making the 
saddle fit tight on his back. You should bring up the girth 
very gently, and not draw it too tight at first, just enough to 
hold the saddle on. Move him a little, and then girth it as 
tight as you choose, and he will not mind it. 

You should see that the pad of your saddle is all right be- 
fore you put it on, and that there is nothing to make it hurt 
him, or feel unpleasant to his back. It should not have any 
loose straps on the back part of it, to flap about and scare 
him. After you have saddled him in this way, take a switch 
in your right hand to tap him up with, and walk about in the 
stable a few times with your right arm over your saddle, taking 
hold of the reins on each side of his neck with your right and 
left hands, thus marching him about in the stable until you 
teach him the use of the bridle and can turn him about in 
any direction, and stop him by a gentle pull of the rein. 
Always caress him, and loose the reins a little every time you 
stop him. 

You should always be alone, and have your colt in some 
light stable or shed, the first time you ride him ; the loft should 
be high, so that you can sit on his back without endangering 
your head. You can teach him more in two hour's time in a 



376 rarey'r method of taming 1 horses. 

stable of this kind, than you could in two weeks in the common 
way of breaking colts, out in an open place. If you follow 
my course of treatment, you need not run any risk, or have 
any trouble in riding the worst kind of horse. You take him 
a step at a time, until you get up a mutual confidence and 
trust between yourself and horse. First teach him to lead and 
stand hitched ; next acquaint him with the saddle, and the 
use of the bit ; and then all that remains is to get on him 
without scaring him, and you can ride him as well as any 
horse. 

How to Mount the Colt. — First gentle him well on both 
sides, about the saddle, and all over until he will stand still 
without holding, and is not afraid to see you anywhere about 
him. As soon as you have him thus gentled, get a small 
block, about one foot or eighteen inches in height, and set 
it down by the side of him, about where you want to stand to 
mount him ; step up on this, raising yourself very gently ; 
horses notice every change of position very closely, and if you 
were to step up suddenly on the block, it would be very apt 
to scare him ; but by raising yourself gradually on it, he will 
see you without being frightened, in a position very nearly 
the same as when you are on his back. 

As soon as he will bear this without alarm, untie the stirrup- 
strap next to you, and put your left foot into the stirrup, and 
stand square over it, holding your knee against the horse, and 
your toes out, so as not to touch him under the shoulder with 
the toe of your boot. Place your right hand on the front of 
the saddle, and on the opposite side of you, taking hold of a 
portion of the mane and the reins, as they hang loosely over 
his neck, with your left hand ; then gradually bear your weight 



rarey's method or taming horses. 37? 

on the stirrup, and on your right hand, until the horse feels 
your whole weight on the saddle ; repeat this several times, 
each time raising yourself a little higher from the block, until 
he will allow you to raise your leg over his croup, and place 
yourself in the saddle. 

There are three great advantages in having a block from 
which to mount. First, a sudden change of position is very 
apt to frighten a young horse who has never been handled ; 
he will allow you to walk up to him, and stand by 
his side without scaring at you, because 
gentled him to that position 
if you get down on 
your hands and 
knees and crawl to- 
ward him, he will 
be very much fright- 
ened ; and upon the 

SUBMISSION OF THE HOKSE. 

same principle, he 

would be frightened at your new position if you had the power 
to hold yourself over his back without touching him. The 
first great advantage of the block, then, is to gradually gentle 
him to that new position in which he will see you when you 
ride him. 

Secondly, by the process of leaning your weight in the 
stirrup, and on your hand, you can gradually accustom him 
to your weight, so as not to frighten him by having him feel 
it all at once. And, in the third place, the block elevates you 
so that you will not have to make a spring in order to get 
upon the horse's back, but from it you can gradually raise 
yourself into the saddle. When you take these precautions, 




SIS RAREY'S METHOD OP TAMING HORSES. 

there is no horse so wild but that you can mount him without 
making him jump. When mounting, your horse should always 
stand without being held. A horse is never well broken when 
he has to be held with a tight rein when mounting ; and a colt 
is never so safe to mount as when you see that assurance of 
confidence, and absence of fear, which cause him to stand with- 
out holding. 

An improved plan of mounting is to pass the palm of the 
right hand on the off-side of the saddle, and as you rise lean 
your weight on it ; by this means you can mount with the girth 
loose, or without any girth at all. 

How to Ride a Colt. — When you want him to start do 
not touch him on the side with your heel, or do anything to 
frighten him and make him jump. But speak to him kindly, 
and if he does not start pull him a little to the left until he 
starts, and then let him walk off slowly with the reins loose. 
Walk him around in the stable a few times until he gets used to 
the bit, and you can turn him about in every direction and stop 
him as you please. It would be well to get on and off a good 
many times until he gets perfectly used to it before you take 
him out of the stable-. 

After you have trained him in this way, which should not 
take you more than one or two hours, you can ride him any- 
where you choose without ever having him jump or make any 
effort to throw you. 

When you first take him out of the stable be very gentle with 
him, as he will feel a little more at liberty to jump or run, and 
be a little easier frightened than he was while in the stable. 
But after handling him so much in the stable he will be pretty 
well broken, and you will be able to manage him without trouble 
or danger. 



rarey's method of taming horses. 379 

When you first mount him take a little the shortest hold on 
the left rein, so that if anything frightens him you can prevent 
him from jumping by pulling his head round to you. This 
operation of pulling a horse's head round against his side will 
prevent any horse from jumping ahead, rearing up, or running 
away. If he is stubborn and will not go, you can make him 
move by pulling his head round to one side, when whipping 
would have no effect. And turning him round a few times will 
make him dizzy, and then by letting him have his head straight, 
and giving him a little touch with the whip, he will go along 
without any trouble. 

Never use martingales on a colt when you first ride him; 
every movement of the hand should go right to the bits in the 
direction in which it is applied to the reins, without a martin- 
gale to change the direction of the force applied. You can 
guide the colt much better without it, and teach him the use of 
the bit in much less time. Besides, martingales would prevent 
you from pulling his head round if he should try to jump. 

After your colt has been ridden until he is gentle and well 
accustomed to the bit, you may find it an advantage, if he car- 
ries his head too high or his nose too far out, to put martingales 
on him. 

You should be careful not to ride your colt so far at first as 
to heat, worry, or tire him. Get off as soon as you see that he 
is a little fatigued ; gentle him, and let him rest ; this will make 
him kind to you, and prevent him from getting stubborn or 
mad. 

To Break a Horse to Harness. — Take him in a light 
stable, as you did to ride him ; take the harness, and go through 
the same process that you did with the saddle, until you get him 



380 



RAREY'S METHOD OP TAMING HORSES. 



familiar with it, so that you can put it on him, and rattle it 
about without his caring for it. As soon as he will bear this, 
put on the lines, caress him as you draw them over him, and 
drive him about in the stable till he will bear them over his hips. 
The lines are a great aggravation to some colts, and often 
frighten them as much as if you were to raise a whip over them. 
As soon as he is familiar with the harness and lines, take him 
out and put him by the side of a gentle horse. Always use a 
bridle without blinkers when you are breaking a horse to 
harness. 

Lead him to and around alight gig or phaeton ; let him look 
at it, touch it with his nose, and stand by it till he does not care 
for it : then pull the shafts a little to the left, and stand your 
horse in front of the off- wheel. Let some one stand on the right 
side of the horse, and hold him by the bit, while you stand on 
the left side, facing the sulky. This will keep him straight. 
Run your left hand back, and let it rest on his hip, and lay 

hold of the 
shafts with 
your right, 
br ingin g 
them up very 
gently to the 
left hand, 
which still 
remains sta- 

BREAKING THE HORSE TO HARNESS. tlOnary. 1/0 

not let anything but your arm touch his back, and as soon as 
you have the shafts square over him, let the person on the op- 
posite side take hold of one of them, and lower them very gently 




NEUROTOMY OR NERVING. 381 

to the shaft-bearers. Be very slow and deliberate about hitch- 
ing ; the longer time you take the better, as a general thing. 
When you have the shafts placed, shake them slightly, so that 
he will feel them against each side. As soon as he will bear 
them without scaring, fasten your braces, etc., and start him 
along very slowly. Let one man lead the horse, to keep him 
gentle, while the other gradually works back with the lines till 
he can get behind and drive him. After you have driven him 
in this way a short distance, you can get into the sulky, and all 
will go right. It is very important to have your horse go gently 
when you first hitch him. After you have walked him awhile, 
there is not half so much danger of his scaring. Men do very 
wrong to jump up behind a horse to drive him as soon as they 
have him hitched. There are too many things for him to com- 
prehend all at once. The shafts, the lines, the harness, and the 
rattling of the sulky, all tend to scare him, and he must be made 
familiar with them by degrees. If your horse is very wild, one 
foot had better be put up the first time you drive him. With 
the leg strapped up, the lighter the gig the better, and four 
wheels are better than two. 



WARRANTY. 



In the purchase of a horse the buyer should take with the receipt 
what is termed in law a warranty. The hest way of expressing it 
is in this form : 

Philadelphia, August 1, 18 — . 

Received of William Ingalls three hundred dollars, for a black 
mare, warranted only five years old, sound, free from vice, and 
quiet to ride and drive. 

$300. EDWARD RIDDLE. 

A receipt, which includes simply the word "warranted," extends 
merely to soundness. " Warranted sound," has no greater extent ; 
the age, freedom from vice, and quietness to ride and drive should all 
be especially named. This warranty embraces every cause of un- 
soundness that can be detected, or that is inherent in the constitution 
of the animal at the time of sale, as well as every vicious habit which 
he has previously shown. In order to establish a breach of the war- 
ranty, and then be enabled to return the horse or recover the price 
paid, the purchaser must prove that it was unsound or viciously 
disposed at the time of sale. In case of cough, the horse must have 
been heard to cough previously to the purchase, or as he was led 
home, or as soon as he had entered the stable of the purchaser. 
Coughing, even on the following morning, will not be sufficient ; for 
it is possible that he might have caught cold by a change of sta- 
bling. If he is lame, it must be proved to arise from a cause that 
could not have occurred after he was in the purchaser's possession. 
No price will imply a warranty, or be deemed equivalent to one ; 
the warranty must be expressly stated. 

A fraud in the seller must be proved, in order that the buyer may 
be enabled to return the horse or maintain an action for the price. 
The warranty should be given at the time of sale. A warranty or 
a promise to warrant the horse, given at any period previous to the 
sale, is of no effect ; for the horse is a very perishable commodity, 
and his constitution and his usefulness may undergo a considerable 
change in a few days. A warranty after the sale is also of no effect, 
as it is given without any legal consideration. In order to complete 
the purchase, there must be a transfer of the animal, or a written 
memorandum of agreement, or the payment of some sum, however 
small, as earnest-money. No verbal promise to buy or sell is bind- 
ing without one of these accompaniments ; and the moment either 
(382) 



WARRANTY. 383 

of them is effected, the legal transfer of property, or its delivery, is 
made, and whatever may happen to the horse, the seller retains, or 
is entitled to, the money. If the purchaser exercises any act of 
ownership — as by using the animal without leave of the seller, or 
by having any operation performed upon him, or medicines given 
to him — he makes him his own. 

If the horse should afterward be discovered to have been un- 
sound at the time of warranty and sale, the buyer may return him. 
Although not legally compelled to give notice to the seller of the 
discovered unsoundness, it is best that such notice should be given. 
The animal should then be tendered at the house or stable of the 
seller. If he refuses to receive the animal, humanity dictates that 
he should be sent to a livery stable, in preference to tying him up 
in the street ; an action can be maintained, after the horse has been 
tendered, for the necessary expenses of keeping him as well as for 
the price paid. The keep, however, can be recovered only for the 
time that necessarily intervened between the tender and the deter- 
mination of the action. It is not legally necessary to return the 
animal as soon as the unsoundness is discovered. The animal may 
be kept for a reasonable time afterward, and even proper medical 
means may be resorted to for the removal of the unsoundness ; but 
courtesy, and indeed justice, will require that the notice should be 
given as soon as possible. Although it is laid down, upon the au- 
thority of an eminent English judge, that "no length of time elapsed 
after the sale, will alter the nature of a contract originally false," yet 
there are recorded cases in which the buyer was prevented from 
maintaining his action, because he did not give notice of the un- 
soundness within a reasonable time after its discovery. What will 
constitute this reasonable time, depends upon many circumstances. 
It was formerly supposed that the buyer had no right to have the 
horse medically treated, and that he would vitiate the warranty by 
so doing. The question, however, in such a case would be, whether 
the animal was injured, or his value lessened, by such treatment. 
It may be remarked that it is generally most prudent to refrain from 
all medical treatment, since the means adopted, no matter how 
skillfully used, may have an unfortunate effect, or what is done 
may be misrepresented by ignorant or interested observers. 

When a horse is returned, and an action brought for the price, 
it is indispensable that in every respect, except the alleged un- 
soundness, the animal should be as perfect and valuable as when 
he was bought. 



384 WARRANTY. 

The purchaser may, possibly, like the horse, notwithstanding his 
discovered defect ; in which case he may retain him and bring an 
action for the depreciation in value on account of the unsoundness. 
Few, however, will do this, because the retaining of the animal will 
give rise to a suspicion that the defect is of no great consequence, 
and consequently will occasion much cavil about the amount of 
damages ; the suit terminating, probably, in the recovery of slight, 
if any, damages. 

Where there is no warranty, an action may be brought on the 
ground of fraud ; but as this is very difficult to be maintained, few 
persons will hazard it. It will in such a case, be necessary to prove 
that the seller knew the defect, and that the buyer was imposed 
upon by his false representations ; and that, too, under circum- 
stances in which a person of ordinary carefulness and circumspection 
might have been imposed upon. If the defect was palpably evident, 
the purchaser has no remedy, for he should have exercised more 
caution ; but if a warranty was given, it covers every unsoundness, 
evident or concealed. Although a person should ignorantly or 
carelessly buy a blind horse, warranted sound, he may return it — 
the warranty is his protection, and prevents him from examining 
the horse as closely as he otherwise would have done ; but if he 
buys a blind horse, supposing him to be sound, and without a war- 
ranty, he is without any remedy. The law supposes every one to 
exercise common circumspection and common sense. 

A person should have a more thorough knowledge of horses than 
most possess, together with perfect confidence in the seller, who 
ventures to buy a horse without a warranty. If a person buy a 
horse warranted sound, and discovering no defect in him, sells him 
again, relying upon his warranty, and the unsoundness is discov- 
ered by the second purchaser, and the horse returned to the first 
buyer, or an action commenced against him, the latter has his claim 
upon the first seller, and may demand of him not only the price of 
the horse, or the difference in value, but all expenses which may 
necessarily have been incurred. 

Exchanges, whether of one horse absolutely for another, or where 
a sum of money is paid in addition by one of the parties, stand upon 
precisely the same ground as simple sales. If there is a warranty 
upon either side, and that is broken, the exchange is vitiated ; if 
there is no warranty, deceit must be proved. 



THE END. 



.Jan ?3 I86i 



1 



A BOOK FOR EVERY FAMILY IN THE UNION 



THE 



KELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS 

m THE 

UNITED STATES; 

THEIR HISTOBY, DOCTRINE, GOVERNMENT AND STATISTICS ; WITH 

A PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF JUDAISM, PAGANISM, 

AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 

By KEY. JOSEPH BELCHEK, D.D. 

HONORARY MEMBER OP THE HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OP PENNSYLVANIA AND WISCONSIN, 

AUTHOR OP "WILLIAM CARET, A BIOGRAPHY," ETC., ETC., AND "EDITOR 

OF THE COMPLETE 'WORKS OP ANDREW FULLER," 

"WORKS OF ROBERT HALL," ETC., ETC 



Standing on the broad foundation of universal Brotherhood, this 
volume gives the History and Present Condition of some Fifty dif- 
ferent Sects, pointing out the peculiar doctrines of each, and giving 
all a fair, impartial, and reliable hearing. The Publications of each 
Denomination have been its authorities ; and where these have 
failed to be fully satisfactory, the information sought for has been 
gained by direct correspondence with some of its prominent mem- 
bers. Its Statistical Tables are very full and complete ; while the 
vast amount of information it contains, renders it invaluable to 
the student as a book of reference or research. A warm and genial 
spirit pervades the work throughout ; which, with its short and 
pithy memoirs and numerous illustrative anecdotes, will tend to 
ensure it an eager welcome to many a family circle. 

It is in one royal octavo volume of 1024 pages, printed in a clear 
and open type, is illustrated with nearly two hundred Engravings, 
and will be furnished in various styles of binding to suit every taste. 

On the following page we have annexed a few out of many 

notices received, all of wnich show a high appreciation of its 

merits. 

(i) « 



A BOOK FOR EVERY FAMILY IN THE UNION, 



BELCHER'S RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.— "It embodies a vast 
amount of information relative to the Origin, History, and Missionary Opera- 
tions of the different Religious Denominations in this Country, presented in a 
remarkably interesting and attractive manner. With respect to Binding, 
Paper, and Typography, the Book may be regarded as a model — a Beautiful, 
Substantial, and Attractive Volume." — Rev. John Dowling, D.D., Author of 
"The History of Romanism," "Judson Offering," etc., etc. 

BELCHER'S RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.— "The plan of the work 
is good. It contains an immense amount of very desirable information. The 
Author is an able and reliable Writer." — J. H. Hills, President Oxford Female 
College, Oxford, N. C. 

BELCHER'S RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.— "I have read a copy 
of Religious Denominations by Belcher, and regard it as containing a large 
amount of valuable information." — Rev. W. E. Booth, of the Methodist Church, 
Talbot County, Ga. 

BELCHER'S RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.— "To great and various 
learning and marked ability, Dr. Belcher adds that precious quality, an 
abounding charity toward all his brethren of the human race, which effectu- 
ally prevents his indulging in a captious or acrimonious treatment of their 
respective Creeds. He allows the different Sects to expound their own Tenets 
and give their reasons for adopting them, and treats every man as a Eriend 
and Brother." — North American. 



BELCHER'S RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.—" It is the misfortune 
of American Christianity that Professors of the several Denominations know 
too little of the faith and doings of those not within their own pale. Such a 
book as this serves to contribute much desirable information to meet that 
need." — Recorder and Register. 



BELCHER'S RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.— "Judging from the 
work, it would be difficult to say what are the Religious Views of the Editor, 
so fairly, so dispassionately, so charitably, has he treated each and every Sect. 
It is plain that a noble love for Truth has animated the Writer." — City Item. 

BELCHER'S RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.—" In narrative and bio- 
graphical sketches, the Author ranks with the best writers of our Country. 
In the volume before us, he gives well-written sketches of the Rise and 
Progress of the Denominations in this Country, a statement of their leading 
Tenets, and of their Numbers, Institutions, etc., relieved by many historical 
and personal incidents of a highly interesting Character." — Christian Observer. 



BELCHER'S RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.— " So far as concerns 
Independence of Vision, there can be no question, as Dr. Belcher surveys 
each Sect with the same dispassionate impartiality. So far as concerns Style, 
it gives us much pleasure to say, that the work throughout is written with 
both precision and ease." — Episcopal Recorder. 



For single copies of tlie Book, or for terras to Agents, with, other 
information, apply to or address, 

JOHN E. POTTER, Publisher, 

No. 617 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 



A COMPANION TO THE FAMILY BIBLE. 



THE LIFE 



Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 

FROM 

His Incarnation to His Ascension into Heaven. 

Br Key. JOHN FLEETWOOD, D.D. 



TO WHICH ARE ADDED 



The Li res of the Holy Apostles and Evangelists, a History of 
the Jews, and an Essay on the Evidences of the Bihle; 



THE WHOLE CAREFULLY REVISED 



By Key. JOSEPH BELCHER, D.D. 



An examination of the earlier English and Scotch editions of this 
valuable and popular work, led to a knowledge of the fact that 
even the most expensive of the American reprints, as well as those 
most largely circulated, were exceedingly imperfect. Whole pages, 
and frequently many in succession, were found to "be altogether 
omitted. Thus, for no other purpose than to reduce the number of 
pages in the volume, omissions were made of much that was impor- 
tant to meet the objections of infidelity, and to silence the enemies 
of Christ. This edition has been thoroughly revised by the late 
Rev. Dr. Belcher, and with the omitted passages restored, and the 
manifold mistakes of successive printers corrected, the Publisher 
has the pleasure of placing before the public the most correct edition 
in existence of this truly great work. 

(iii) 



A COMPANION TO THE FAMILY BIBLE. 



" The life of Jesus Christ is the philosophy of true religion. It 
exhibits the principles of Christianity in their purity and beauty. 
It is perfect excellence personified, that the mind of man may grasp 
it and be changed into the same image. It is unlike all others — 
so sublime as to excite the admiration of an angel's mind, and yet 
so simple as to be intelligible to the feeblest intellect. While it is a 
perfect example to be imitated by all, it also affords to the sanctified 
scholar a lesson of untiring and unending interest. Does he admire 
magnanimity ? Nowhere does he find such a specimen, as in the 
forgiving spirit of Jesus. Does he admire sublimity of thought and 
grandeur of conception ? He sees it in the description of Jesus 
coming to judgment— a God in glory and a world on fire ! Is he 
touched and thrilled by the magic of eloquence ? While he listens 
to Jesus, he is constrained to acknowledge never man spake like this 
man, Is he enamored with the beauties of style ? Nowhere can he 
find a richer feast than in the clearness, unity, strength and har- 
mony which characterize the Sermon on the Mount. 
: Has he an eye to relish the beauties of painting ? Jesus as a moral 
painter spreads before him meadows of greenness ; and fields of lilies. 
Has he a taste for scenes of tenderness, for descriptions which stir 
the heart, and open the fountains of feeling ? He has only to behold 
Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, and listen to his lamentation ! He 
has only to read the story of the Prodigal Son. If he admires courage 
— let him go with Jesus among those who had converted the Temple 
into a den of thieves ; fortitude — let him follow the Man of Sorrows 
into the Garden, or stand by him on the Cross ; condescension — let 
him dine with him at the table of the Publican and witness his 
marked attention to little children ; or humility — let him stand by 
and behold him wash his disciples' feet. The inspired writers have 
given us his life in detached descriptions. Dr. Fleetwood has ar- 
ranged these into one harmonious whole, with such comments, ex- 
planations and incidental information, as to render it alike accepta- 
ble to the scholar as to 'him who knows no more, but knows his 
Bible true.' if the attentive reader finds any occasion for regret, 
it will only be when the last page meets his eye." 

Ic is printed in a clear and open type, in one Royal Octavo Volume, 
and is Illustrated with appropriate engravings, printed in colors, 
or with fine Steel Plates, engraved expressly for the work, from de- 
signs by the old masters, and will be furnished in various styles of 
binding at prices ranging from $2.00 to $5.00. 

Address all Orders to 

JOHN E. POTTER, Publisher, 

No. 617 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
(iv) 



WHAT EVERYBODY WANTS. 



THE FAMILY - DOCTOR; 



CONTAINING 



SIMPLE REMEDIES, EASILY OBTAINED, FOR THE 
CURE OF DISEASE IN ALL FORMS. 



PROFESSOR HENRY S. TAYLOR, M.D. 



IT TELLS YOU How to attend upon the sick and how to cook for them ; 
how to prepare Drinks, Poultices, etc., and how to guard 
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Symptoms of Fever and Ague, and Bilious, Yellow, 
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toms of Croup, Cholera Infantum, Colic, Diarrhoea, 
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Asthma, Dropsy, Gout, Rheumatism, Lumbago, Erysip- 
elas, Cholera Morbus, Malignant Cholera, Small Pox, 
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Ear and Eye, Epilepsy, Jaundice, Piles, Rupture, Dis- 
eases of the Heart, Hemorrhage, Venereal Diseases, and 
Hydrophobia, and gives the best and simplest remedies 
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and Dislocations, Sprains, Lockjaw, Fever Sores, White 
Swellings, Ulcers, Whitlows, Boils, Scurvy, Burns, and 
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The work is written in plain language, free from medical terms, so as to be 
easily understood, and is specially adapted to family and individual use. Al- 
ways at hand and ready to serve you, its simple recipes may soon save you 
much suffering and many times the cost of the book. Read the notice* of 

the Press on the following page. 

(vii) 



WHAT EVERYBODY WANTS. 



THE FAMILY DOCTOR.—" It will be a treasure of wisdom, health, and 
economy to every family that shall purchase and use it." — Philadelphia 
Family Magazine. 

THE FAMILY DOCTOR.— "A very excellent specimen of a very excellent 
class of books, one of which at least oughtto be in every family. It is free from 
* medical terms,' gives much sound, sensible advice as to the preservation of 
health, and may be commended as a work which every family will find a use 
for, time and again, during the year." — Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. 



THE FAMILY DOCTOR.—" The reader will find many excellent pre- 
scriptions and sound admonitions in this volume." — Godey's Lady's Book. 



THE FAMILY DOCTOR. — "The general directions in the commencement 
of the volume respecting the preservation of health, are very judicious and 
valuable. " — Presbyterian Banner. 



THE FAMILY DOCTOR.— "A very useful book, which can be studied 

with advantage." — Philadelphia Ledger. 



THE FAMILY DOCTOR.— "The descriptions of disease are clear, and 
not rendered difficult by technical terms. It will be useful in every family, 
and well deserves an extensive circulation." — Philadelphia Dispatch. 



THE FAMILY DOCTOR.— "The work is eminently practical and bene- 
ficial. It is designed to aid each mother in the prompt relief of pain. Its 
wholesome advice, if followed, will prevent much disease and suffering." — 
Philadelphia Herald. 



THE FAMILY DOCTOR.— "We are much pleased with the Book, and 
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Independent, Rogersville, Tennessee. 



THE FAMILY DOCTOR.— "It is almost indispensable in every family. 
It treats on all prevalent diseases connected with the human race, for which 
cures are given that are within the reach of every one." — Maryland, Carroll 
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THE FAMILY DOCTOR.— "This is a plain kind of Doctor, and talks to 
us in plain Language, easily understood by plain people. It contains many 
accurate descriptions of diseases of children and adults, and many excellent 
prescriptions for their cure." — Sabbath Recorder. 



It contains 308 pages, printed in a clear and open type ; is illus- 
trated with appropriate engravings, and will be forwarded to any 
address, neatly bound, and postage paid, on receipt of $1.00. 

Address all orders to 

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No. 617 Sa7isom Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

(viii) 



Should be Read by every Citizen of the United States 

NICARAGUA: 

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE; 

A DESCRIPTION OP ITS 

INHABITANTS, CUSTOMS, MINES, MINERALS, EARLY HISTORY, 

MODERN FILIBUSTERISM, PROPOSED INTER-OCEANIC 

CANAL, AND MANIFEST DESTINY. 

By PETER F. STOUT, Esq., 

Late United States Vice-Consul. 



With, a New and Improved Map of the Country, appropriately 
Colored. 



"With a population sufficient to rouse her from the lethargy of the Past, with 
products capable of placing her among the most vigorous nations, and with a 
superabundance of mineral wealth, naught seems wanting in this young Re- 
public save an innate spirit of enterprise. Her soil is generous, and to the 
agriculturist indeed inviting. Many sections are admirably adapted to the 
growth of Cotton, or to the cultivation of Sugar, while her Tobacco ranks 
high. But as yet her vast Mineral wealth yields Gold only to strangers, 
while her public lands are unredeemed from total neglect. Disunion, that 
baneful, leprous curse, prowls through her realm ; and Religion, in the ab- 
sence of her first-born, Education, doubly mourns the inattention to her invo- 
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years, but one more star to our banner. 

"It bears evidence of being written in a masterly style, and abounds in in- 
teresting historical reminiscences of the Mosquito Kingdom. The work is 
worthy of attentive perusal ; and we feel satisfied that the time thus spent 
will be amply repaid in the knowledge obtained of the Central American 
States." — Baltimore Republican. 

" One of the most agreeably written Books of Travel we have met with in a 
long time. Its style is simple without poverty of expression, and elegant 
without ostentation; and while it presents its pictures in a soft romantic light, 
it is filled with valuable and accurate information."— Porter's Spirit of the 
Times. 

It is printed on beautiful paper, in a clear and open type, is neatly 
bound in cloth, and will be forwarded to any address, postage paid, 
on receipt of $1.25. Address all orders to 

JOHN E. POTTER, Publisher, 

No. 617 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Pa, 
(ix) 



THE 

EARLY DAYS OF CALIFORNIA. 

EMBRACING 

WHAT I SAW AND HEARD THERE, 

WITH SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
By Col. J. T. FAKNHAM. 

Illustrated 12mo. Cloth Extra, - - - - - $1.00 

AFFECTION'S GIFT 

FOB 

THE LOVING AND THE LOVED. 

POEMS. 

By JOHN COLE HAGEN. 

Illustrated 12mo. Cloth, Gilt, - - - - - - $1 00 

THE 

A TOKEN OF LOVE. 

Illustrated 12mo. Cloth, Extra, - - - - - $1 00 

Address all Orders to 

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No. 017 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 



